By Bill Wilford
Federal Way High School baseball (19-3) raked in another win and no-hitter on Tuesday, May 7, in the opening round of the West Central/Southwest bi-district playoffs by a score of 10-0 against Enumclaw (12-10) marking the 14th straight win for FWHS.
The Eagles Tyler Hoeft pitched the complete game giving up no hits, no runs, and just one walk but did hit two batters with pitches in the sixth inning.
Brandham Ponce was three for four batting on the day including two doubles as headwinds prevented what potentially could have been his eighth home run of the season. Ponce normally plays shortstop, but was in at catcher with starter Ayden Vega out of the game with an injury.
The Eagles knocked 13 hits on the day as Josh Mears had two doubles, Abiel Gonzales had two hits including a triple and Jack Arsenian had two singles along with three stolen bases.
The game was defensively sharp for the Eagles except when a dropped strikeout and subsequent errant throw in the third inning ended with Enumclaw’s batter Tristan Thompson all the way over at third base with two outs. But a flyout by the next batter prevented Enumclaw from scoring.
After Enumclaw made a great play at home for the second out in the sixth inning, it was some vigilant base running by Gonzalez that forced a throwing error by the catcher to second base, scoring Mears for the winning 10th run under mercy rule.
The Eagles now advance to the bi-district semi-final and play a high ranked Camas (16-5) on Saturday, May 11, 1 p.m. The winner of that game plays in the district final at 7 p.m. and the loser plays for third place at 4 p.m. All three of these games are at Art Wright field in Kent.
The top seven teams in the tournament advance to the state regional playoffs on Saturday, May 18, and with wins on Saturday, both Federal Way, and their opponent Camas, will finish no lower than fourth in the district.
The Eagles second opponent on Saturday will be either Puyallup or a re-match with Tahoma.
FWHS baseball is ranked first in the state this season for all 4A teams in the MaxPrep computer rankings and ranked second in the state in the Washington Baseball Poll.
Todd Beamer High School (9-12) won their “play-in” game on Saturday, May 4, against Union High School 4-1.
Nate Clow was on the mound for the Titans against Union (13-8) and allowed only one hit and one run while striking out 11 batters, which advanced the Titans into a district playoff game on Tuesday, May 7, against Curtis (13-8).
But Curtis won the playoff game on May 7 by a score of 9-4, knocking the red-hot Titans, winner of six of their last seven games, out of the playoffs.
The 2019 Titans varsity team includes Adam Czuk, Nate Clow, Isaak Thomas, Ryan Chung, Isaias Mojica, Mason Geving, William Heuett, Trystan Plunkett, Willy Hernandez, Manny Frias-Moreno, Jet Higa, James Turner, Marques Richards and Jordan Service and are coached by Shane Elliott, assisted by Bob Hardy, BA Garner, Donny McConnaughey and Rick Priest.
