Yelm baseball cashes in on Capital mistakes in 11-0 rout

Ryan Sheedy is correct — the line score for Yelm’s victory over Capital at Cheney Stadium is curious.

“A lot of what we scored on was their mistakes,” the Yelm sophomore said. “Four hits and 11 runs doesn’t really add up. But, they hit us, they walked us. It was a good team effort.”

Sheedy — who was 2 for 2 with three RBIs — was one of three Yelm players to connect for a hit. Indigo Keeslar and Cash Boulch each had a hit, too, as the Tornados blanked the Cougars, 11-0, in five innings.

But that’s it.

Of the 16 Yelm players that reached base, seven were walked, three were hit by pitches and two reached on throwing errors.

“I say the team that makes the least amount of mistakes wins,” Yelm coach Brady Hoover said. “You can’t rely on that all the time, but you can take advantage of that, for sure, and our guys did tonight. If other teams make mistakes, you have to keep going after them.”

Capital made plenty, and Yelm did capitalize, earning seven of its 11 runs.

Back-to-back walks in the second inning spurred the Tornados to a 2-0 advantage. Sheedy plated one run on a single to right, and Tanner Hummell grounded into a fielder’s choice at first to score another.

The following inning told a similar story.

Boulch reached on an error and Garrett Friesz followed with a walk. Then Keeslar ripped an opposite-field double to left to score both. He would eventually score on a fielder’s choice, and Daylon Matthews, who walked, would cross on Sheedy’s single to center two batters later.

“If we play like this, it’s going to be a fun season,” Sheedy said. “And if we show up like this and have this same attitude and mentality, we can do a lot of damage.”

Sheedy hit a sacrifice fly to right in the fourth to give Yelm its final 11-0 advantage.

“He put together some really good at-bats,” Hoover said. “I was most impressed with his last at-bat, when he got the sac fly. Two strikes and hammered the ball to right field.

“Situational hitting was fantastic all the way around. That’s a big situation right there and that’s the way we want to play the game.”

Sheedy also closed out Capital in the fifth. Yelm’s four pitchers (Keeslar, Hummell, Bo Campbell and Sheedy) combined for the one-hit shutout, striking out five and walking four.

“We didn’t have very good at-bats, and we’ve got to be able to throw strikes,” Capital coach Jesse Elam said. “That’s what it comes down to — just playing the game the right way. I feel like we kind of got small tonight rather than what we’re trying to preach and getting big. It just wasn’t a very good effort for us.”

Mitchell Dooley connected for Capital’s only hit in the third, when he launched a single into left. He finished 1 for 3. Capital (4-3, 4-0 3A Narrows) left eight runners on base.

Yelm (4-2, 1-1 4A Narrows) also beat Capital, 5-2, in the same setting last year.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 10:53 PM with the headline "Yelm baseball cashes in on Capital mistakes in 11-0 rout."