ADNA — Every pitcher that makes an appearance for the Adna High School baseball team takes roughly 10-to-15 minutes of running in the outfield.
For Jack Pennington, those jogs have recently been time to flush out the rollercoaster he’s experienced on the mound. A power-pitcher at his core has resulted in plenty of strikeouts and conversely high walk numbers and teams getting barrels on his fastball.
“I’ll just look back and see what I can improve on,” Pennington said.
Saturday’s light run was the final page written on a confidence-boosting day.
The Pirates southpaw used his three-pitch repertoire to keep Forks off balance over the final three frames to give the C2BL’s No. 2 seed a 6-2 victory over the P2BL’s No. 3 seed at home in the Class 2B District 4 quarterfinals.
Pennington is fastball first, but he used his curveball and breaking slider to generate six strikeouts and plenty of whiffs.
“This game I got it pretty down,” Pennington said. “It feels pretty good to know my coaches trust me.”
His performance to close out the win puts Adna (19-2) back in the district semifinals on Tuesday and an old foe awaits for a 2 p.m. first pitch in Napavine. Ilwaco, the reigning champs that beat the Pirates in a thriller last spring, stands in the way.
The regular season meeting was a one-sided victory by the Pirates, 12-2 in five innings back on April 20.
“The boys know Tuesday is not a walk-over game and they want that one,” Adna head coach Jake Overbay said. “It is a playoff game where it is going to be high stakes, no matter what.”
Overbay and Pennington both stated the junior’s outlook on a game is all based on his secondary pitches. They weren’t effective enough in his last three appearances against Toutle Lake, Rainier or Toledo.
The numbers in those contests: 10-plus innings, six hits, 13 earned runs, 11 walks and 20 strikeouts.
Mixed bag? Or an outlier sample for a pitcher that’s been routinely a top arm this spring?
“It is how he mentally views himself,” Overbay said. “When he is locked and confident, he is really tough to beat. I try to build (the confidence) back quickly.”
“I’ve balanced it just for my approach to the game,” Pennington admitted.
Saturday’s starter Brody Richards went four innings and struck out five, then started to get fatigued and made way for Pennington. At the time, Forks (9-9) began to piece together quality at-bats and cut a 4-0 deficit in half with a Connor Clark two-run single in the fourth inning.
The rest of the game featured just one hit, one walk and three total base runners for the Spartans.
“Just build off something like that,” Overbay said.
Adna scratched enough runs across thanks to a pair of two-run singles from Richards and Talan Guerrero in the second and third frames. Naillon Ramirez added another run-scoring base hit and Cameron Nakano ripped an RBI triple for a pair of insurance runs in the sixth.
The Pirates struck out just five times in 24 at-bats and drew three walks. Now, they get the chance to earn a small piece of revenge versus the Fishermen.
“It’d be good to come back and maybe blow them over,” Pennington said.
Forks was able to upend the C2BL’s No. 6 seed Winlock 10-0 in five innings in the first round game in Adna. Both sides combined for nine errors, but the Spartans took advantage of six miscues by the Cardinals early.
A five-run bottom of the first gave Forks the cushion it needed to end the game early. Winlock’s best chance at avoiding the shutout came in the top of the fourth with Carter Svenson and Daelan Bradshaw getting plunked.
The Spartans turned a 5-4-3 double play to get out of the jam.
“We didn’t capitalize and I’ll take that loss, it is on me,” Winlock first-year head coach Colton Hawkins said.
A year after winning in the pigtail game, the Cardinals (7-13) did see steps of growth with a pair of C2BL sweeps and being a top-six team in the league. Hawkins is hopeful that player development will allow them to take another step forward in 2027.
Five seniors – Svenson, Kyrin Meehan, Liam Groves, Tucker St. Paul and John Mansfield – played their final high school game. Svenson and Meehan will continue playing baseball at Grays Harbor Community College next year.
“It is all about culture and next year, we plan to continue to change the culture into a winning culture,” Hawkins said. “We’re gonna strive to do better next year. Each year, we want to climb.”
