MARYSVILLE — This season, the crosstown rivalry between the Marysville Pilchuck and Marysville Getchell baseball teams may be about more than pride.
Both teams, which hope to compete for a league title and postseason berth, met up Tuesday for round one of their three-game series. By the third inning, Marysville Pilchuck had no hits and found itself with a one-run deficit.
Then the Tomahawks seemingly flipped the switch, scoring 11 runs on 10 hits in two innings to power past Marysville Getchell 11-1 in a five-inning Wesco 3A North game at Marysville Pilchuck High School.
“Guys did a good job at the plate today,” said Marysville Pilchuck head coach Kurt Koshelnik. “We did fall behind and they didn’t get rattled. They just started plugging away and little by little, the next thing you know, the runs started piling up.”
Despite it being early in the year — it was just the second league game for both teams — both head coaches know the importance of getting a victory.
“It’s a big league game,” said Marysville Getchell head coach Gerry Klep. “… I assume they’re the other best team in the league, next to us, and we didn’t get the job done today.”
Koshelnik said the crosstown rivalry adds a bit more motivation for his players, despite his best efforts.
“Of course we want to beat them,” Koshelnik said. “They’re all friends, one way or another. They grew up playing together so that makes it different, as much as we try to preach, ‘It’s just another league game,’ this is different. Nobody wants to lose this one.
“I’m just proud of our guys. We talk about going out there and playing for the logo on your hat. Our kids chose MP and we want to represent that well.”
Trey Southard got the first of five straight hits that drove in runs for Marysville Pilchuck in the bottom of the third as the Tomahawks batted around the order. Cal Walker followed Southard’s hit with a two-run triple, Tristen Southard hit an RBI single, Logan Sewell belted an RBI double and Dylen Boomer capped the scoring with an RBI single to left field.
“When you get somebody down, now it’s time to finish it,” Koshelnik said. “Don’t let up. See if we can get it done in five and we were fortunate that we did. Not that you want to shorten games, but it just saves our pitching. It’s huge.”
Marysville Pilchuck (2-0 league, 5-2 overall) added five more runs in the fourth, getting its 11th — and game-winning — run when Tomahawks leadoff hitter Landon Riker was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Sophomore Jacob Watts, recently promoted to the varsity squad, struck out two of the three batters he faced in the top of the fifth to close out the victory.
“These guys are a really good hitting team,” said Klep, “and when you leave fastballs on the plate for them to hit, they’re going to hit.”
Every batter in the lineup for Marysville Pilchuck got at least one hit, with Southard (2-for-3) leading the way with three RBI.
Marysville Getchell (0-2, 4-3) catcher Austin Richbourg led the Chargers’ offense, going 2-for-2 with a double and scoring the Chargers’ lone run on an RBI single by Cameron Burns — who was thrown out trying to turn the hit into a double in the top of the third.
“He kind of got our offense sparked and did a really good job,” Klep said.
The Marysville Getchell coach hopes his team’s offense, which is missing two starters because of spring break, can tally more than four hits in Wednesday’s contest against the Tomahawks.
“I thought the first three innings we hit the ball like we wanted to, we put some pressure on them,” Klep said. “Our concept here is to pitch and play defense. I think we can play pretty good defense. We need to pitch and throw strikes and that’ll all fall into place.”
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