Rochester’s season came to a close Monday afternoon with an 11-0 loss to Shelton in the play-in round of the Evergreen 2A Conference baseball tournament.
Shelton pitcher Kyle Gerchak tossed a five-inning no hitter, striking out three, to get the win.
The Warriors, though, committed three errors in the loss and couldn’t turn any of the five walks Gerchak issued into runs.
“We didn’t do much right,” Rochester coach Brad Quarnstrom said. “We didn’t get a hit, we struggled at times to throw strikes, and then we struggled at times to play catch, as well.”
Shelton led 7-0 after two innings and cruised in the win.
“They did make a few good plays, too,” Quarnstrom added. “We hit a few good balls that we squared up, that we thought would get down, that didn’t get down. They came to play today.”
It was the final game for Rochester’s Cody Morton, Eddie Burkhardt and Nolan Eyles. Morton started at catcher and Burkhardt played first base, though Eyles — who Quarnstrom said likely would have been the team’s No. 1 pitcher — tore his ACL in the first game of the season and missed the remainder of the year.
“We just got the injury bug bad,” Quarnstrom said. “Our opening day starting lineup, compared with the lineup the rest of the season, was nothing similar.”
The Warriors went 6-9 on the season.
“All in all, the pitchers threw well,” he said of the year in review. “I thought some of our younger guys stepped up and did some good things for us.”
