The Olympian

Olympia baseball team suffers first loss

The Olympian | • Published April 03, 2008

TACOMA - In the top of the ninth, the Olympia boys baseball team pushed across a run to take a 2-1 lead, but Bellarmine answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to pull out the 3-2 Class 4A Narrows League Bay Division win.

It's Olympia's first loss of the season.

Olympia spoiled a good pitching performance by Kramer Champlin and Damon Porter with five errors.

"We've been really good defensively but we weren't today," Olympia coach Todd McDougall said. "Yesterday, we played flawless. Today, defense let us down. You're not going to be great every game."

It was Olympia's second straight extra-inning game. Olympia beat Central Kitsap 3-2 in a nine-inning game on Tuesday.

Bellarmine led off the 12th with a triple and McDougall gambled by walking the next two batters to reach the No. 7, 8 and 9 batters.

"It was do-or-die right there," McDougall said.

Olympia, now 9-1 overall and 6-1 in the Narrows League, play Bellarmine again today.

"This will be a big test for us," McDougall said. "It's a chance for us to bounce back."

Capital 5, N. Thurston 1

Despite being outhit by North Thurston, the Cougars were able to capitalize on three errors by the Rams as Capital scored three runs in the third inning.

"We took advantage of a few walks and a few errors," Capital coach Eric Stark said.

"We didn't exactly light it up offensively, but got runs when we needed to.

Devin Ferguson was 2-for-3 with an RBI for the Rams, and Joe Tolman was 2-for-3 with two runs scored for the Cougars. Capital pitcher struck out six Rams batters in his complete game effort.

River Ridge 2, Aberdeen 0

Behind the complete-game shutout efforts of pitcher Steven Schoonover, the Hawks improved to 3-1 in the Class 2A Evergreen Conference with a win over the Bobcats.

"Steven pitched one heck of a game," River Ridge coach Chad Arko said. "He really controlled the action and really dominated."

Schoonover allowed just five hits and struck out eight while giving up three walks.