After a week filled with rain delays, Decatur and Bonney Lake finally were able to face off on the baseball diamond on Thursday, and it was the Panthers that came away with a 17-6 victory.
Bonney Lake was in control of the game from the outset.
The first three Panthers batters reached base by either hit or error. They scored two runs in the inning.
Michael Fitzpatrick started the game on the mound and picked up a strikeout in the first inning. The top of the second inning was not so kind, however.
While he only gave up one hit, Fitzpatrick walked three Bonney Lake batters. The hit he gave up, a double to Bonney Lake’s Adam Fahsel, brought home two runners.
Fahsel later scored on a passed ball.
Decatur got on the board as well in the second inning. Tim Hughes’ double brought home a couple of runners, cutting the Panthers lead to 5-2.
Bonney Lake extended their lead once again in the third inning with Hughes on the mound. They racked up four hits, including a double by Gavyn Tinsley, and their three runs in the inning pushed the score back to 8-2.
Panthers starting pitcher Kyle Muller was solid through the first four innings of the game. He gave up six hits, two runs and walked two batters, but he also recorded six strikeouts. Muller finished with an ERA of 3.50 in his four innings of work.
After scoring one run in the bottom of the fourth, it seemed as though Decatur was poised to make a run with Muller out of the game in the fifth inning. The Gators tagged Fahsel, who took over on the mound in the bottom of the fifth, for four hits and three walks.
But even with nearly the entire batting order reaching base, Decatur only managed two runs. While they were able to get runners on base, they had trouble capitalizing.
“We had 23 runners on base,” Decatur head coach Korey Sites said. “We only got six runs out of that. But to get 23 runners on in a seven-inning ballgame, when things even out throughout the year, that’s going to equal more than six runs in your average game.”
The game got completely out of hand for the Gators in the top of the sixth inning.
After pitching two scoreless innings, Gators’ pitcher Ben Ray gave up two hits, the second of those being a two-run home run.
Bryan Ponce replaced Ray on the mound with no outs in the inning. The Panthers picked up five more runs in the inning on four hits and two walks.
Ponce also had one strikeout in the inning before being pulled. Talon Guyalog finished the rest of the inning on the mound for Decatur.
Decatur scored one run in the bottom of the sixth to keep the lead in single digits at 15-6.
Bonney Lake scored twice more in the top of the seventh inning to bring the game to its final score of 17-6.
“We’ve always used non-league games as a way to prepare ourselves for league,” Sites said. “Our goal is to see different guys on the mound, what people can do in different spots defensively – so although the outcome isn’t what we wanted, there’ s a lot of positive to take away from today’s game.”
Besides the number of runners on base, Sites also praised the pitching of Ray during his innings of relief.
Ray was also a standout at the plate for Decatur, getting hits in two plate appearances and drawing a walk on the third. He also tied with Hughes for the team lead in RBIs with two.
Fahsel and Drake Liske led the Panthers with three RBIs.
On Saturday, the team traveled to face the defending state champion, South Kitsap, and lost 6-5.
They defeated Kentwood by scoring eight runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to win 8-7 on Tuesday. Their game against Tahoma was rained out on Wednesday.
The Gators (1-3, 0-0) were scheduled to face Kent-Meridian on Thursday after the Mirror’s publishing deadline.
They begin league play with a three-game series against Thomas Jefferson (1-3, 0-0), starting on Tuesday.
