EAST WENATCHEE – The Oroville High School Boys Baseball team won their first District Playoff game beating Waterville 4 to 3 Saturday, May 10 at Eastmont High School in East Wenatchee.

The win gave Oroville a state tournament playoff birth. They will play this Saturday, May 17 in Walla Walla against the District 9 number one seed.

Oroville had four runs on 12 hits, while Waterville collected three runs on four

hits. Bud Swenson pitched all seven innings for the Hornets throwing nine strikeouts. Matt Sharpe and Justin Miller each went two for four with two RBI’s.

“Sharpe’s second hit came in the fifth with the score tied at two, runners on

second and third. He hit a hard line-drive into the right centerfield gap driving in two runs to put the Hornets up by two,” said Coach Tam Hutchinson.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Waterville’s Rob Fila, who had hit a homerun in the third inning to tie the game, led off with a triple down the right field line. He scored

on the next batter’s fly ball out to centerfield.

“Swenson got the next two batters to also fly out. That ended Waterville’s scoring as Swenson struck out all three batters in the bottom of the seventh,” said Hutchinson. Other hitting highlights included Nathan Thompson who went two for three on the day. Thompson started things off for the Hornets by taking the first pitch of the game

deep off the left field fence for a double, said Hutchinson. Freshman Davis Castillo also had a good day going three for four at the plate and playing solid defense at third base, Hutchinson added.

In the second game, Oroville played Kittitas for the District 6 Championship. After playing a great first game and sitting around for three and a half hours, Oroville came out flat against Kittitas giving up seven runs and committing five errors in the first inning.

The Hornets “were never able dig themselves out of that first inning hole and managed only four runs on 11 hits, while committing nine errors,” said Hutchinson.

Kittitas scored 15 runs on 19 hits with no errors.

“Bright spots for Oroville were Brandon Funston who went four for four and again Davis Castillo who was two for three with three RBI’s, including a two RBI double in the sixth,” said the coach. “Bud Swenson had an RBI triple in the 4th. Jake Hilstad was two for four and scored two runs.”