Ravens beat Evergreen 8-5 in district tourney | Prep baseball

Two innings into Auburn Riverside's first game of the West Central District III/Southwest District IV tournament against Evergreen of Vancouver on Tuesday, victory looked to be in the bag. With Gonzaga University-bound senior ace Michael Rucker in firm control on the hill, and the Raven bats exploding for eight runs through two frames, the Ravens seemed to be on a cakewalk. But baseball is no bake sale. Although Auburn Riverside held on to win the game 8-5, keeping its hopes of a berth in the Washington State 4A tourney alive, the final innings were perhaps a bit spicier than the Ravens had expected. "The one positive thing is that we've got some more kids with some experience in some pressure situations," Auburn Riverside coach Jon Aarstad said. "That's the thing with baseball, nobody is going to give up. I think we got a little lax and took a seven-run lead for granted. Hopefully we learned a lesson and won't do that again."

Two innings into Auburn Riverside’s first game of the West Central District III/Southwest District IV tournament against Evergreen of Vancouver on Tuesday, victory looked to be in the bag.

With Gonzaga University-bound senior ace Michael Rucker in firm control on the hill, and the Raven bats exploding for eight runs through two frames, the Ravens seemed to be on a cakewalk.

But baseball is no bake sale.

Although Auburn Riverside held on to win the game 8-5, keeping its hopes of a berth in the Washington State 4A tourney alive, the final innings were perhaps a bit spicier than the Ravens had expected.

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“The one positive thing is that we’ve got some more kids with some experience in some pressure situations,” Auburn Riverside coach Jon Aarstad said. “That’s the thing with baseball, nobody is going to give up. I think we got a little lax and took a seven-run lead for granted. Hopefully we learned a lesson and won’t do that again.”

With Rucker riding the pine after two innings, to save him for future work, junior Adam Parke pitched three strong innings before running into trouble in the top of the sixth and allowing two Plainsmen to get on base.

Junior Tyler Sherwin came in for Parke with two outs in the inning, working the Ravens out of trouble and stranding two Evergreen batters.

In the top of the seventh, however, the Plainsmen came alive, roughing up Sherwin and scoring four runs, including Ryab Grening’s two-run tater.

With the tying run at the plate and two outs, junior reliever Mitchell Grentz – in for Sherwin – forced Evergreen’s Austin Hadley to pop out for the final out of the contest.

“We pitched okay through six innings,” Aarstad said after the game. “The kids battled and got through some tough situations and did good getting out of those. We came out and swung the bats pretty good and really got going in the first and second inning. But we need to not let down. It’s a seven inning game. We didn’t play seven innings today. We played about two and a half.”

Rucker finished the game with two innings pitched and two strikeouts, giving up two hits. Parke pitched 3.2 innings, striking out two, allowing three hits and earning the win.

Grentz was credited with the save.

Senior Nick Minteer lead the Ravens offensive attack, going 3-for-4 and two runs scored. Senior Josh Latta added two RBIs, and senior Nick Minteer chipped in with two runs and an RBI.

After the game, Rucker said, Aarstad took his squad aside to stress the importance of being consistent throughout the game.

“Consistency is the biggest thing we need to work on,” Rucker said. “Obviously the first two innings we had the momentum and scored eight runs. After that with No. 11 (Evergreen pitcher Patrick Thorpe) he just changed his approach, or we just couldn’t figure him out. It was just really flat in the dugout. We just need to take momentum into (Wednesday) and just be consistent.”

The Ravens played No. 9 Gig Harbor in a loser-out contest on Wednesday, with results unavailable. The winner moves on to a game against either Kentridge or South Kitsap to decide the No. 5 or No. 8 seed into the 4A state tourney, at 4 p.m. Saturday at Heritage Fields in Puyallup.

ALSO: Auburn Mountainview’s postseason journey came to an end with a 10-6 loss to South Puget Sound League 3A foe Decatur in a loser-out contest Friday at Auburn Mountainview in the SPSL 3A tournament.

The Lions (14-7) battled back from a 4-0 deficit to take the lead in the fifth inning 6-5, but the Gators’ four-run seventh inning undid the heroics.

“It was a very difficult way to end our season,” Auburn Mountainview coach Glen Walker said. “When you play a team four times in a season, like we did with Decatur, there is a very good possibility that you will lose one of those four games to them. Decatur played very well, and this was their night.”

Lions senior reliever Chris Hunter was tagged with the loss on the hill. Hunter pitched two innings, giving up one hit, five runs and striking out five.

Junior Shawn Guinn threw three innings in relief, giving up four hits, a run and striking out four.

Starter Nick Brooks threw two innings, giving up two hits, four runs and striking out four batters.

Offensively the Lions were led by Guinn, who had two RBIs on three hits, including a double and a triple. Brooks, Kekoa Nahaku and Josh Minton all added RBIs and Jeffrey Morgan scored two runs.

Auburn Mountainview finished the regular season with a 12-3 league record, good for second in the SPSL 3A.

“It was a very good season, but an unfortunate outcome for us” Walker added. “I am proud of my team and of our seniors for what they have done for us these last few years. We’ll learn from this and it will make us a better, more focused team in the future.”