High school baseball rivals from Tumwater and Black Hills high schools met Friday, April 14 in 2A EVCO (Evergreen Conference) play at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma with the TBirds prevailing 10-0. Tumwater (13-3, 9-1 2A EVCO) held a 1-0 lead after scoring in the first inning.
Both teams’ starting pitchers dueled well. Tumwater’s starter senior Ayden Ramsey had three strikeouts and Black Hills starter Alec Lynch had two strikeouts. Ramsey was helped by an odd triple play in the bottom of the first. Black Hills loaded the bases but made multiple base running mistakes after a pop-up infield fly rule was called.
The game was close until the fifth inning when the T-Birds scored nine runs beating down Black Hills. Tumwater head coach Lyle Overbay was happy with the adjustments his team made. “We had some luck on our side in the first inning with that triple play, and our pitchers settled down and threw well,” Overbay remarked after the win. “We are playing good team baseball and when we do that we tend to click more. Everything we want to accomplish is right in front of us. So happy to see their hard work paying off.”
For Black Hills (0-11, 0-7 2A EVCO) moving into the second half of the season, the team looks to find its first win. Newly elevated interim coach, Tom Spray is focusing on a new motto “Moving Forward”. “We aren’t spending any energy on the past. We’re gonna learn from it, toughen up and move forward,” Spray stated after the loss. “Alec Lynch pitched well for us, and the team rallied behind him. I thought we played well defensively for four innings. We let the fifth get away from us. Tumwater is good. They capitalized on a few of our mistakes.”
Tumwater hopes to continue building as they try to defend their 2A 2022 State Championship. They defeated Rochester 7-0 Saturday and take on WF West and Shelton in league play this week. “We have big games this week versus good teams so if we play our game, we will have a great opportunity to set ourselves up for playoff opportunities,” Overbay remarked about the last few games of the season.
