The Oak Harbor High School summer baseball team continued its hot streak as it won three out of four games and placed third in the eight-team Don Daniels Memorial Tournament in Anacortes June 16-18.
The Wildcats have won seven of their last nine games and raised their record to 8-5.
Oak Harbor 6, Coupeville 5
Oak Harbor withstood a five-run rally by Coupeville in the sixth-inning to pull out the opening game of the tournament Friday night.
The Wildcats jumped to a 5-0 lead with a run in the first and four in the third.
An error off the bat of Aiden McCarthy plated Corey Roberts for Oak Harbor’s first run.
In the third with two outs and no one aboard, the Wildcats erupted for four runs. Donny Kloewer and Thomas Anderson singled and McCarthy was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Joe Dixon doubled in two runs, and Andrew Dixon singled in two more.
In the sixth, Oak Harbor score what eventually became the winning run. Aaron Boesch singled and later scored on Roberts’ base hit.
The Wildcats’ Jack Lovendale took a shutout into the sixth, then Coupeville made it interesting by putting up a five spot.
Walks to Jonathan Thurston, Taylor Consford and Matt Hilborn; singles by Dane Lucero, Jake Pease and Jake Hoagland; and a double by Hunter Smith produced the five runs.
Oak Harbor added a run in the top of the seventh, but game ended before the completion of the half inning because of the tournament’s time rule.
The Wildcats’ Joe Dixon finished the game with two hits, including a double, and Andrew Dixon added a pair of singles. Boesch, Roberts, Kloewer, Anderson and Will Ray all singled.
Smith led Coupeville with three hits. Consford, Lucero, Hilborn, Pease, Hoagland and Jacob Zettle all collected a base hit.
Lake Stevens 9, Oak Harbor 0
The Vikings scored seven runs in the third inning to take control and added two more in the sixth. In the four innings Lake Stevens didn’t score in the six-inning game, it put only one runner on base.
Oak Harbor had at least one runner aboard in each inning but couldn’t come up with a clutch base hit. In all, the Wildcats stranded eight runners.
Kloewer singled twice and Joe Dixon doubled for Oak Harbor. Boesch, Caleb Fitzgerald, Taylor Rummel and Chase Ogden all singled.
Oak Harbor 1, Anacortes 0
Boesch pitched a two-hit shutout for Oak Harbor and Fitzgerald put down a perfect suicide bunt in the sixth inning to drive in the game’s only run.
Both of Anacortes’ hits came in the first inning, when Boesch pitched out a bases-loaded jam.
Catcher Martinez helped quell two other attempts by Anacortes to rally later in the game by throwing out runners trying to steal.
Oak Harbor put a runner on base each inning except the first but couldn’t score until the sixth. With one out, Roberts and Boesch walked and both moved up on a wild pitch. Fitzgerald dropped down a squeeze bunt to score Roberts.
Anderson doubled and Kloewer and Ogden singled for the Wildcats’ only hits.
Oak Harbor 8, Blaine 5
The Wildcats finished second in their pool and then defeated Blaine, the second-place team from the other pool, Sunday in the game for third place.
Oak Harbor led 4-3 going into the seventh inning, then scored four more runs.
Those extra runs came in handy when Blaine rallied in the bottom of the seventh, scoring two runs and leaving runners stranded a second and third.
Oak Harbor scored once in the first inning on singles by Boesch and Anderson.
The Wildcats made it 3-0 in the fourth with two runs with the help of a walk to Rummel and hits by Martinez and Andrew Dixon.
After Blaine scored twice in the bottom of the fourth, Oak Harbor countered with a run in the fifth. A single by Boesch, an error and a hit by Kloewer picked up the run.
Blaine trimmed the lead to 4-3 with a run in the sixth, then Oak Harbor pushed across four runs in the top of the seventh, all with two outs. Singles by McCarthy, Kloewer, Martinez and Rummel fueled the rally.
Boesch, Kloewer, Andrew Dixon, Martinez and Rummel each had two hits; Anderson and McCarthy also singled.
Austin Boesch fires a pitch in his two-hit shutout against Anacortes. (Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times)
Oak Harbor Andrew Dixon waits for a pickoff throw Saturday. (Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times)
Taylor Rummel leads off first base in the Anacortes game Saturday. (Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times)
Oak Harbor’s Aaron Martinez blocks a pitch. (Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times)
Joe Dixon attempts to bunt for Oak Harbor. (Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times)
