The Oak Harbor High School baseball team missed a chance to move into a tie for first place in the Wesco 3A North when it lost to visiting Arlington 8-6 Wednesday, April 29.

Oak Harbor won 14-9 at Arlington Tuesday.

A win Wednesday would have assured the Wildcats of finishing no lower than second in the division. Oak Harbor (8-4, 10-6) can lock up at least second place with a win at Arlington (6-6, 8-9) in the series finale at 4 p.m. Friday, May 1.

Oak Harbor wraps up the regular season with a pair of games with Marysville Getchell (5-7, 9-8) next week. The teams meet in Oak Harbor at 4 p.m. Monday, May 4, and at Marysville-Pilchuck High School at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Marysville-Pilchuck (9-3, 12-5) leads the North.

In Wednesday’s loss, Oak Harbor committed a whopping 10 errors and blew a 5-0 lead.

Arlington squandered several scoring opportunities over the first four innings, but it didn’t in the fifth when it pushed across six runs.

The Eagles had runners at the corners with one out in the first inning, but a Wildcat double play ended the threat.

Arlington put three aboard, all on errors, in the second inning but came up empty. It did score one run in the third inning but left two runners stranded.

The Eagles’ first two hitters in the fourth reached on errors, but neither scored.

An error, six hits and another error helped Arlington score six runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-5 lead.

Oak Harbor scored two runs in the first inning and three in the second with the help of doubles by C.J. Meders and Robert Herring and two singles from Kevyn Johnson.

In the Wildcats’ win Tuesday, Johnson, Meders, Brent Mertins and Tyler Snavely started the game with singles and all four scored. Arlington countered in its half of the first inning with four runs of its own.

The Wildcats scored two runs in the second inning. Johnson walked and Mertins singled in front of Snavely’s two-run double.

In the third inning, Oak Harbor scored four times to go ahead 10-4. Chris Trisler singled and Steve Richards walked, then Danny Wolfe moved them up with a sacrifice bunt. Johnson singled in one run, then Meders walked to load the bases. Mertins doubled and Snavely singled to register three runs.

Arlington scored two in the third inning and another run in the fifth to make it 10-7.

The Wildcats bounced back and tacked on three runs in the sixth. Singles by Trent Benson, Richards and Johnson, an error and a sacrifice fly by Mertins accounted for the runs.

Herring was hit by a pitch in the seventh inning and eventually scored on Trisler’s fly out.

Arlington scored single runs in the sixth and seventh.

Snavely earned the pitching win, replacing starter Benson in the third inning. He also went 4-for-5 at the plate.

Mertins and Johnson had three hits each, and Benson and Trisler had two apiece.

(Thrid baseman C.J. Meders fields a bunt in Wednesday’s game. Photo by John Fisken.)