Cruiser Baseball Starts 2019 Season
Freshman Blain Hanly pitches the Cruisers to a 3-0 victory over North Mason. Photo Credit: Rina Springer
Spanaway Lake 3 Eatonville 1 - The Eatonville Cruiser baseball team took to the diamond on March 11th as they hosted the Spanaway Lake Sentinels on opening day of the 2019 season.
Senior Andrew Wiklund got the start on the mound for the Cruisers where he would sail through the first inning by retiring all three batters he faced. Eatonville would strike first in the bottom on the first when Zach Smith would lead off with a walk and Andrew Wiklund would drive him in and the Cruisers would take a 1-0 lead.
Wiklund would cruiser through the first three innings by not allowing a hit until Spanaway Lakes Dawsen Kaaiawela stepped to the plate and hit a 1-2 pitch hard into right field. He would later score in the inning as the Sentinels plated two in the inning to take the lead, 2-1.
Spanaway Lake would tack on another run in the sixth inning off of Jarod Humphrey who came in to relieve Wiklund in the fifth. The Sentinels would go on to take the 3-1 victory.
Summary – LP: Wiklund (4IP, 1ER, BB, 8K) Smith 1-2, R, BB / Hanly 1-3, / Humphrey 1-2 / Wiklund 0-3, RBI
Eatonville 3 North Mason 0 - Looking to bounce back from their opening day loss, the Cruisers would host the North Mason Bulldogs on March 13th. Freshman Blain Hanly would get the call this time for the Cruisers on the mound.
Hanly would go five innings giving up only one hit, walking one and striking out three to pick up the win.
The Cruisers would get the scoring started in the third inning when Hanly would fly out to the centerfielder and Brandon Storm would tag up and score. They would add one more run in the inning when Andrew Wiklund doubled to right field scoring Zach Smith.
The Cruisers would add one more run in the fifth when Jarod Humphrey hit a hard ground ball to the third baseman and reached on an error scoring Hanly to finish off the Cruiser scoring.
Freshman Jacob Lucht would come in to relieve Hanly in the sixth. Lucht would work the final two innings giving up only one hit while striking out one to pick up the save and preserve the Cruisers 3-0 victory.
Summary - WP: Hanly (5IP, 1H, BB, 3K) S: Lucht (2IP, 1H, K) Hanly 1-3, RBI / Wiklund 1-3 2B, RBI / Smith 1-3, 2B, R / Jumper 1-1, 2B / Storm 0-2, 2R
Bethel 8 Eatonville 5 – After hosting their first two games of the season, the Cruisers would travel to Spanaway to take on the Bethel Braves on March 14th.
Eatonville would draw first blood after they would load the bases and Ryan Rogers would single home Zach Smith. They would keep the scoring going when Josh Kondra would drive in Blain Hanly. Ashton Meyer would then drive in Andrew Wiklund from third to take a 3-0 lead.
The Braves would counter with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Both teams would each put another run across in the second inning to put the score at 4-4.
With Jarod Humphrey in relief, Bethel would push another run across in the fourth to take the lead, 5-4. With a runner on second, Zach Smith would come in to relieve Humphrey and would strike out the next two batters to end the inning.
In the top of the sixth, Eatonville would tie the game up at 5 after Zach Smith hits a sacrifice fly to center field and Jacob Lucht would tag up to score.
Andrew Wiklund would come in to relieve Zach Smith in the bottom of the sixth inning. He would strike out the first two Brave batters he faced, before hitting a batter and walking the next. With two runners on, Bethel’s Wyatt Breshears would pinch hit and drive a Wiklund 0-1 pitch over the right field fence for a 3-run homerun to give Bethel the 8-5 lead.
The Cruisers couldn’t answer back in the top of the seventh and would fall 8-5 to the Braves.
Summary - LP: Wiklund (2IP, 3ER, BB, HBP, 3K) Rogers 2-4, RBI / Hanly 1-3, R, RBI / Meyer 1-3, RBI / Kondra 1-4, RBI / Wiklund 0-3, R, RBI / Smith 0-0, HBP, SF, 2BB, RBI, 2R
Eatonville 1 Foss 0 – The Cruisers were scheduled to take on the Foss Falcons but the Falcons did not have enough eligible players to field a team, therefore the Cruisers would take the win via forfeit.
