With its first attempt to play baseball over spring break thwarted by the weather, W.F. West’s break between games stretched past a whole week, but the Bearcats ended the time away with a solid afternoon at the yard, beating 3A North Thurston 4-2 on Friday.
“We were just trying to get them back in the flow of things and back in the groove before we get back into league play next week,” first-year WFW coach Jesse Elam said.
After so long out — and with another four days until their next game — the Bearcats found themselves with a pitching staff that was completely rested but close to going on restless. With so many arms needing to get on the mound, Friday’s non-league contest turned into a bullpen day, with five pitchers combining to go seven innings.
Senior LCC commit Hunter Lutman started things off as a quasi-opener, striking out the side in the first inning for a quick day at the office, before donning a sweatshirt and getting to watch the rest of the game from the dugout.
From Lutman, Elam went to Waylen Land, who tossed two more scoreless innings, as the Bearcats jumped out to a 3-0 lead. Land gave way to Riggs Westlund, who gave up both of North Thurston’s runs in the fifth but finished with three punchouts of his own.
Finally, WFW turned to the underclassmen to see the win out. Sophomore Weston Potter and freshman Connor Coleman both allowed a hit but struck out two in scoreless frames in the sixth and seventh, respectively, with Coleman earning the save.
“Everybody threw well,” Elam said. “I think that our guys are good enough on the mound — and they believe it — that if they just throw strikes, they’re going to be successful. And our defense is good enough behind them that they have the confidence to throw the ball over the plate and let guys hit it.”
All together, the quintet of Bearcat pitchers combined to strike out 10 Rams, allowing six hits and five free passes. None of them hit 40 pitches.
At the plate, W.F. West got on the board early with some two-out thunder, as Braden Jones knocked an RBI single to score Deacon Meller, then went to second on a hit batter, and scored on an Avery Staloch knock.
The Bearcats would only get one more hit the entire game — on an infield single by Evan Stajduhar that a meaner scorer would have ruled an error — but managed to manufacture insurance nonetheless.
Gavin Fugate made it 3-0 in the bottom of the third inning, leading off with a walk, stealing second base, going to third on a groundout, and scoring on a wild pitch with two outs.
Two innings later, Jeron Martin and Meller pulled off an early double steal, and when the Rams threw the ball into the outfield, Martin came around second to make it 4-0.
“When we get baserunners, we can cause some havoc out there, and we showed that,” Elam said. “That’s what it’s about.”
The Bearcats now sit on five straight wins, with a team ERA of 1.20 during the streak. W.F. West is set to resume 2A EvCo play — it’s currently 4-0 in league — with a two-game series against Shelton on Tuesday and Wednesday, before facing Centralia on Friday.
“I think if we come out and do our thing and do what we’re supposed to do, we’ll be just fine,” Elam said.
