Prior to the opening game of the 2007 WesCo North baseball season, Oak Harbor coach Jim Waller said nearly every team in the league was evenly matched and the race for the championship was going to be close.
The veteran coach’s prediction is true.
At the end of the second full week of play, only Lake Stevens remains undefeated.
Every other team has lost at least one game and Oak Harbor is tied for third place with Everett, Marysville-Pilchuck and Monroe with 2-2 league records.
On Thursday, it took an unearned run and three sparkling innings of relief pitching by Gary Ellis to earn the Wildcats a 4-3 victory over Arlington.
Coming off a 13-5 road loss to the Eagles March 27, a split in the two-game series was a big plus for Oak Harbor.
“The key thing is getting a split. If you get swept by a team you really put yourself in a hole,” Waller said.
Arlington took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on a leadoff triple by Joey Dettrich and an infield error.
“We made some plays today when we had to but in the past few games, our defense has been killing us,” Waller said. “Even today, errors and mental mistakes cost us some runs.”
The Wildcats came back with three runs in the bottom of the third inning to take the lead.
James Cardinal reached base on a leadoff single and Marcus Naymik put down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Cardinal to second.
Chris Reilly was safe on an error and then moved up to second base on a wild pitch.
Chris Valencia followed with a two-run line single to centerfield and after Johnny Encinas singled, James Leach came through with a two-out single to plate Valencia with the Wildcats’ third run.
Starting pitcher Marshall Lobbestael was right on the edge of trouble in his first three innings of work, but got off the hook thanks to a missed sign which resulted in an Arlington runner getting picked off in the first inning and double play that ended the second inning.
Arlington pushed across single runs in the top of the fourth and fifth innings to tie the score before Ellis took the mound in relief.
The senior left-hander threw strikes and was able to shut down the Eagles’ offense.
“I felt pretty good out there and I felt like I was 100 percent,” he said. “I felt good about not giving up any hits.”
Waller was equally pleased with his relief pitcher’s performance.
“Gary came in and threw strikes and that was the key thing,” Waller said. “He has been a little inconsistent with us this year, but he threw strikes today in some tough situations. He showed a lot of mental toughness and I was proud of what he did.”
With the game tied 3-3, the Wildcats scored an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning to win the game.
Lobbestael led the inning off by racing all the way to third base on an infield error and scored the game winner on a sacrifice fly by Leach.
“I almost fell on my face coming out of the box, but I just got lucky,” Lobbestael said while getting his sore elbow worked on after the game.
Valencia was 2 for 3 for Oak Harbor with a double and a pair of RBI, and Leach drove in two runs.
Dettrich had a double and a triple for Arlington.
Oak Harbor plays at Ferndale Thursday in a non-leage game and returns to WesCo action hosting Snohomish at 4 p.m. Friday.
Oak Harbor 4, Arlington 3
Arlington 010 110 0 — 3 9 2
Oak Harbor 003 001 x — 4 5 3
Joey Dettrich and Andrew Distoell; Marshall Lobbestael, Gary Ellis (5) and Johnny Encinas. W — Ellis. L — Dettrich. 2B — Dettrich, Trevor Milless (A); Chris Valencia (OH). 3B — Dettrich (A). HR — none.
