EHS Baseball: Hornets Earn Ticket to State with 8-7 Win over Mountain View

Cody Hughes' walk-off single and D.J. Hitch's stellar relief pitching helped the Hornets (18-2) overcome defensive struggles to rally and knock off Mountain View High School of Vancouver (16-6) 8-7 in the West Central District Tournament on Thursday afternoon at Auburn Mountainview High School.

The win secures a spot for Enumclaw in the State Tournament next Saturday May 21 where the first round and quarterfinals will take place on that day and the four surviving teams will play at the newly renovated Cheney Stadium, home of the Tacoma Rainiers on May 27 and May 28.

"We did not get too down during the game," Hornets coach Eric Fiedler said. "Mountain View is a good team that makes you make mistakes."

Enumclaw started the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Levi Goodin helped his cause with a two-run single right back up the middle into centerfield scoring Kyle Baumgartner and Marcus Madden and putting the Hornets ahead 2-0.

The Thunder would strike back in the top of the fourth inning cashing in on multiple defensive errors by Enumclaw and a couple of extra base hits by Riley O'Dell and Ryan Johnson; Justin Rinta's RBI single combined with Michael Rivers getting on via an error pushed Mountain View ahead 4-2.

Goodin put together a solid performance overall in the midst of the mistakes that put the Hornets behind late in the game and coach Fiedler afterwards praised the right-hander for keeping the team in the game.

"How tough luck was Levi today," Fiedler said. "We did not play defense behind him."

The Thunder extended their lead to 5-2 in the top of the fifth when Cameron Westphal came around to score thanks to a pair of Hornet errors and a wild pitch; in that inning, Hitch in relief came in and secured a momentum-changing double play ground ball to keep Enumclaw in striking distance going into the bottom of the fifth.

"I knew I had to throw strikes,"Hitch said. "If I put the ball in play I knew my defense would step up and make plays."

The Hornets answered in the bottom of the fifth as they started to wear down Mountain View ace pitcher Zach Torson. Madden drove in Hughes with a line drive single to cut the lead to 5-3.

In the bottom of the sixth, Enumclaw batted around sending 10 men to the plate and scored four runs, knocking out Torson and forcing the Thunder to go into their bullpen. Hitch singled to start the inning, Trenton Disque moved Hitch along to second base, and Kyle Thomson drove in Hitch to cut the lead to one at 5-4.  Tyler Carlson drew a key hit by pitch to set the table for Hughes, who drove in Thomson and Carlson with a double hit well into the right centerfield gap putting the Hornets back ahead 6-5. Baumgartner then doubled in Hughes to put Enumclaw ahead at 7-5 going into the top of the seventh.

The Thunder would not go away quietly as  Riley O'Dell's RBI single drove in P.J. Jones to tie the game at 7-7. Michael Lucarelli had two key strikeouts with runners at second and third and one out to keep the game tied for the Hornets going into the bottom of the seventh.

With one out in the bottom of the seventh, Enumclaw got things going with a triple by Thomson blasted into deep rightfield.  Then after an intentional walk to Lucarelli, Hughes came up with up two outs with the game on the line and came up clutch, blasting a 1-1 pitch from Thunder relief pitcher P.J. Jones into right field, driving in Thomson and punching the Hornets' ticket to the State Tournament next weekend.

"Tyler Carlson told me the pitcher (Jones) had a decent fastball and a okay changeup," Hughes said. "So, I was sitting on a fastball."

Hughes also lauded his team's approach offensively throughout the game.

"We did a nice job of producing veteran at-bats getting deep into the count," he said. "We also did a good job of taking time in the batters box when ever (Torson) got into a rhythm."

On the Thomson triple and Hughes at bat:  "I thought about sending Kyle if they really had gotten off line," Fiedler said. "Cody just had a great at-bat, I thought he was going to hit the ball hard somewhere and he got it far enough away from the right fielder to win it for us."

One of the unsung keys to the Hornets' success is the intelligence of the team and afterward Fiedler took a moment to comment on how crucial that has been to his teams success this season.

"We have 11 guys on this team who have taken an AP Math class," Fiedler said. "So when the game's on the line and I have guys like D.J.and Trenton trying to keep us in the game like they did today, I know we are going to respond well as a team."

With the win, Enumclaw moves on to the seeding portion of the West Central District Tournament. Both Hitch and Fiedler look forward to the next round on Saturday.

"This is a big momentum boost for us, it puts us into state," Hitch said.

Fiedler said,"We have got competitive kids and I know they will want to win these next two games."

The Hornets will take on Timberline at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Auburn Mountainview. A win will place Enumclaw in the West Central District Championship game at 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Box Score:

Mountain View(Vancouver)   000 410 2-- 7-6-2

Enumclaw                                  020 014 1--8-12-5

WP: Lucarelli

LP: Jones