EVERETT — Things were looking great for the Marysville Pilchuck baseball team in its 3A District 1 third-place game against Ferndale.
Then the “avalanche” hit.
A nine-run top of the sixth erased a big Tomahawks’ lead and put Marysville Pilchuck in what proved to be an insurmountable deficit, as the Tomahawks saw their season end with an 11-6 loss to Ferndale Saturday afternoon at Everett Memorial Stadium.
“Snowball would be an understatement. That was an avalanche,” said Marysville Pilchuck head coach Kurt Koshelnik. “It’s going to take some time to process.”
A three-run fifth inning gave Marysville Pilchuck a 6-2 lead heading into the sixth. After a groundout to start the inning, the next six Golden Eagles batters reached base. An RBI single by Ferndale’s Ian Barnes — and a throwing error on the play that allowed another run to score — broke a 6-6 tie and a three-run double by Brady Shearer capped the scoring as Ferndale put up nine runs on six hits and two Marysville Pilchuck errors.
“I’m really disappointed with how it turned out but I’m not disappointed with one of those kids,” Koshelnik said. “All I asked at the beginning of the year was that they put their head down and work hard and they put their heads down and worked hard. It just didn’t come out in our favor today.”
Marysville Pilchuck starter Parker House had five strong innings and was relieved before most of the damage was done in the sixth by Zack Barker. House had a sore shoulder after a game earlier in the year and Barker had served as the Tomahawks’ closer toward the end of the season.
“Parker, my starter, did a good job of mixing up off-speed (pitches). But he was getting tired,” Koshelnik said. “… He kind of hurt his shoulder a little bit so we’ve been real careful with him. (House had) thrown what I thought was long enough. And (we were) in a comfortable-enough spot position to bring in Zack, who has closed some games for us the last two weeks or so.”
The loss ended the season for Marysville Pilchuck, which won the Wesco 3A North title and finished the season 16-8.
“I hate to compare teams, but I think, selfishly as a coach, I had the most fun this year,” Koshelnik said. “I really, really liked this group of kids. They would come everyday and smile and have fun. Grades weren’t an issue, there was no drama, they just came out and played baseball everyday and had fun. That’s what I’ll remember the most.”
The big inning overshadowed a strong offensive performance from several Marysville Pilchuck players.
Landon Riker batted 2-for-3 with three runs scored, Tristen Southard (2-for-4) had a pair of doubles, two runs scored and an RBI, Calvin Walker was 2-for-3 with two RBI and Nick Anderson (2-for-3) added two doubles, two RBI and a run scored for th Tomahawks, who took a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
“I thought we swung it well. It was exciting and promising, it felt like we were rolling there,” Koshelnik said. “Baseball’s a funny game.
“… Collectively, we did a really good job. But just, that avalanche.”
At Everett Memorial Stadium
Ferndale 100 019 0 — 11 12 0
M. Pilchuck 201 030 0 — 6 10 2
Corbin Puhan, Miguel Mungarro (5), Nathaniel Carlson (7) and Brady Shearer. Parker House, Zack Barker (6), Logan Sewell (6) and Dylen Boomer. WP–Mungarro. LP–Barker. 2B–Kyle Sandstrom (F), Matthew James (F) 2, Shearer (F), Tristen Southard (MP) 2, Nick Anderson (MP) 2, Landon Riker (MP). Records–Ferndale 19-5 overall. Marysville Pilchuck 16-8.
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