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NAPAVINE — Through six games this spring, Napavine looked the part of one of the best teams in the Central 2B League. The Tigers won each of their six games by at least eight runs, including five run-rule victories.
The seventh game on Wednesday against Toutle Lake, though, served as a wake-up call.
“Sometimes, a little slice of humble pie is a good thing,” Napavine coach Brian Demarest said.
It was one of those days for the Tigers, who were shutout 8-0 by Toutle Lake in their first loss of the season.
“That was not baseball at all,” Demarest said. “That was a gross display of whatever it was. Nothing against what (Toutle Lake) did, but that was not Napavine baseball.”
Things went wrong instantly, as the first three Ducks to come to the plate drew walks, and two of them scored to put the Tigers down before their first at-bat.
Toutle Lake added three more in the top of the third, one in the fourth, and two in the fifth, including a run on a swinging bunt infield single that went no further than 15 feet in front of the plate.
To make things even more frustrating for the Tigers, the pitch prior to that was bunted off the Toutle Lake batter and called foul, but the infield knock did the job of bringing home the run anyway.
“If it could go wrong today, it went wrong,” Demarest said. “But with that said, baseball is a weird thing. Things went wrong because we put ourselves in position for those things that go wrong … It was a cluster.”
While Toutle Lake was building on its lead, Josh Hanson did a great job keeping the Napavine bats in check. The Tigers had scored at least 14 runs in each of their first six games, but they managed just three hits and struck out six times against Hanson, who threw a complete-game shutout.
“That kid threw really well,” Demarest said. “He pounded the zone. We were off balance. We had crappy approaches at the plate, and he took full advantage of it.”
Demarest admitted that he’s looking forward to getting Wednesday’s game “out of their system,” but he also acknowledged that the Tigers need to remember the feeling they had as they cleaned the infield in the moments after the loss.
“Our kids have a lot of growing up to do in a lot of areas,” Demarest said. “I think, like most high school kids, you come out, win a few games, and think you’re better than you are. We’ve lost focus of a few things. Hopefully, this is exactly what we needed.”
The Tigers (6-1, 5-1 C2BL) will attempt to get back in the win column on Friday, when they head to Rainier for the first of a two-game set that will conclude on Monday in Napavine.
