The Oak Harbor High School baseball team finished the regular season with an 8-5 win at Marysville-Pilchuck Tuesday, April 30.
The Wildcats (8-10, 9-11) and Tomahawks (8-10, 8-12) finished tied for fourth in the Wesco North, but Marysville-Pilchuck will get the fourth seed into the playoffs because it won the season series 2-1.
Fifth-seeded Oak Harbor will need to win a play-in game at Ferndale (11-9) at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 2, to advance to the eight-team, double-elimination district tournament.
Ferndale defeated Oak Harbor 7-2 in a non-league game March 20.
The “award” for winning the play-in game is a date at top-seeded Arlington (20-0), the state’s No. 1 3A team according to the Washington Baseball Poll, at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 4.
Oak Harbor 8, Marysville-Pilchuck 5
The Wildcats surrendered two runs in the bottom of the first inning and then took the lead for good with a five-run second, thanks to a fit of wildness by the M-P pitcher. Oak Harbor scored its first three runs without a hit.
Taylor Rummel and Joseph Dixon got the second started with walks. After an out, Aiden McCarthy was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Walks to Caleb Fitzgerald and Austin Boesch forced in the first two runs.
Noah Meffert hit into a fielder’s choice, driving in McCarthy’s courtesy runner Aaron Martinez. Donny Kloewer followed with a two-run single to make it 5-2.
Oak Harbor made it 6-2 in the third when Andrew Dixon tripled and scored on McCarthy’s sacrifice fly.
The Tomahawks scored once in the fourth to make it 6-3.
The Wildcats scored twice in the sixth. Fitzgerald walked, then Meffert, Thomas Anderson and Rummel all singled.
M-P scored two runs in its half of the sixth inning to finish the scoring. The Tomahawks loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh but couldn’t push across the tying runs.
Rummel and Andrew Dixon each finished with two hits, and Meffert, Kloewer and Anderson had one each.
Jacksyn Pawlowicz pitched the first 5.2 innings to earn the win, getting relief help from Andrew Dixon and Meffert.
