Brent Baker / staff photoTonasket’s Kjeld Williams was injured in a collision at third base during the Tigers’ loss to Chelan last Tuesday.
TONASKET – The little things proved costly for the Tonasket baseball in team in their Tuesday, April 17, Caribou Trail League game with Chelan.
The Tigers briefly took a 2-1 lead in the third inning, but had a golden opportunity to add to the lead that they couldn’t covert into more runs.
The Goats came back to score four runs in the fourth to take the lead for good and went on to a 9-3 victory.
Tonasket coach Tim Cork said that, in an odd way, it was good that the “little things” — like failing to take first base after a wild pitch on a strikeout — hurt the Tigers’ chances to win.
“It’s good, because it never really mattered until the last couple of games,” he said. “We played seven good innings of competitive baseball. When you’re in games that aren’t close, the little plays don’t seem to matter, and today we saw that they do.”
The Goats took a 1-0 first inning lead. But the Tigers had their chances, putting runners on second and third with one out, but having Jesse Manring gunned down at home plate while trying to score on a Chris Elliott’s sacrifice fly.
With one out, Ian Young and Dylan Fewkes each singled, and after a passed ball the Goats intentionally walked John Rawley. Kjeld Williams drew a bases loaded walk to force in the Tigers’ first run, and Manring’s suicide squeeze bunt scored Rawley with the go-ahead run.
But with first base open, a strikeout / wild pitch that brought home Williams with a third run was nullified when the batter didn’t run to first and was tagged for the third out — something that happened twice in the game.
“We had the lead and a chance to blow the inning open and get some momentum,” Cork said. “We needed to capitalize on their mistakes, but we didn’t get that done.”
Instead, Chelan came back to score four runs in the fourth to go up 5-2.
Fewkes doubled and later scored in the fifth to cut it to 5-3. Chelan added one in the sixth and three more in the seventh to put the game away.
Fewkes pitched a complete game, allowing 13 hits and three walks while striking out two.
“Dylan keeps getting better,” Cork said. “He’s got better command of his curve and he’s throwing harder (than earlier in the year)> I really want to congratulate him because he was very mature and didn’t react when things went wrong behind him. He’s like a coach out there and makes no excuses.”
Fewkes also had two hits, with Young, Rawley and Elliott adding one hit apiece.
“We had some ineligibility and injuries Iincluding one to Williams, who was injured in a collision at third base),” Cork said. “But the kids kept fighting and cheering and were aggressive. I’m very proud of them.”
Cashmere 17-20, Tonasket 0-0
TONASKET – The Tigers experienced first-hand why unbeaten Cashmere is one of the favorites to win the state 1A title, suffering a pair of big defeats on Saturday, April 21.
“They are very good,” Cork said, “and we have a long way to go.”
The Bulldogs improved to 14-0 (9-0 CTL) while the Tigers fell to 2-12 (1-8).
