BELLINGHAM – Sehome senior ace Evan Kingma started the game, went five innings throwing 100 pitches, but it was his 101st “pitch” that closed the game out. The Mariners were leading 7-5 with two outs in the seventh inning when Bellingham clean up hitter Ethan Berschauer hit a line shot that found its way to right field, only to have Kingma field it and throw a strike to first base to get the final out of the game.
“How did we win that one?” questioned Sehome coach Monte Walton. “We got some clutch hitting late in the game, especially from Ethen Brown against a guy that throws pretty hard (Bellingham’s Ethan Paxton).”
The Mariners led for most of the game, and were up 3-2 in the top of the fifth. But, that was when the Red Raiders finally got to Kingma. It started with a one-out single by Bellingham freshman, Everett Simpson. Then it was Whatcom County’s leading hitter, Kyle Payne, that singled, and Nathan Pursley’s walk loaded the bases. That was when senior short stop Nick Knutson hit a sharp single up the middle that scored two runs, giving the Red Raiders the lead. Nick Posey followed that up two batters later by legging out an infield hit that scored Pursley.
Sehome showed its mettle in the sixth inning, down 5-3, and finally figuring out Berschauer’s arrangement of off-speed pitches. Pinch hitter James Meader led off the inning with a walk, and freshman Tim Malo followed up by getting hit by a pitch. Leadoff hitter Trevor Seaholm hit a line shot to left field, but Simpson was playing in and easily made the catch. Meader was then thrown thrown out at home while trying to score on a wild pitch, but Josh Manson and Jacob Kaepernick both walked to load the bases, and force Berschauer out of the game.
Paxton, who hadn’t pitched since the opening game when he got injured, then entered the game for Bellingham with two outs and the bases loaded. Mariner third baseman Makana Grondin walked on four pitches, scoring Malo. Manson scored on a wild pitch to tie the game, and Brown’s single scored Kaepernick and Grondin to give Sehome the lead for good.
Manson got his second win of the season in relief, and has become the premier relief pitcher of Whatcom County with three saves.
Sehome (7-2) will face one of the Northwest Conference’s top teams in Anacortes (7-1) on the road today at 5:00, while Bellingham (0-7) will try to get on the right track at Nooksack Valley (4-1) today at 4:30.
