Buoyed by a six-run inning in each game, the Oak Harbor High School baseball team dumped Everett 7-5 twice this week.
The two wins pushed the Wildcats’ winning streak to six and into second place in the Wesco 3A North. Oak Harbor (7-5, 8-7) now holds a game-and-a-half lead over third-place Stanwood (5-6, 5-9); the two teams meet at Stanwood at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 18, in a make-up game for last Friday’s rainout.
The second-place team earns a home game in the first round of the playoffs.
Everett (0-11, 1-13) provided more resistance than expected. The Seagulls entered the Oak Harbor series having lost nine straight, losing by an average of nine runs per contest.
In Tuesday’s game at Everett Memorial Stadium, Oak Harbor erupted for six runs in the first inning and it looked like Everett was in for another big loss.
The Seagulls, however, responded with five runs in their half of the first, and it looked like the game would be a slugfest.
Neither was true.
The Wildcats added the game’s only other run in fifth.
In the Oak Harbor first, Grant Schroeder led with a walk, Mike Maletto reached on an error, then after an out, Seagull starter Mitch Erickson hit consecutive batters (David Kusnick and Cory Cameron) to force in a run.
Anthony Stewart followed with a two-run double, Clay Doughty singled in the fourth run and Andrew Snavely finished it off with a two-out, two-run double.
Schroeder doubled in the fourth and scored on Jack Richter’s sacrifice fly.
Oak Harbor starter Schroeder was hit by some bad luck in the bottom of the first, according to coach Tyson VanDam. The Seagulls strung together five hits, including an infield single, bad-hop single and double lost in the sun.
Richter replaced Schroeder in the third and gave up only two hits the rest of the way.
Snavely led the offense with two doubles.
It took the Oak Harbor offense awhile to get going in Wednesday’s home game. Everett starter Christian Tracy retired the first 12 hitters before the Wildcats put up six runs in the fifth.
Richter doubled, Brent Mertins was hit by a pitch and Cameron bunted for a single to load the bases. After an out, Stewart singled in a run.
Tracy struck out the next hitter and it looked like he might escape further damage. Schroeder, however, hit a slow roller to second; he beat the throw and the toss was wide and allowed two runs to score. Maletto singled in two more and Kusnick added another RBI single.
Everett scored two unearned runs off pitcher Danny Wolfe in the first and another in the sixth.
After Wolfe gave up a leadoff single in the seventh, he was replaced by Snavely. An error and hit produced the final two Everett runs.
Oak Harbor finished with nine hits, one by each starter.
The Wildcats play their fourth game in four days when Oak Harbor and Everett wrap up their three-game series at 4 p.m. in Everett Friday, April 19.
