Opportunistic Saxons charge into state
Whoever said that it’s the little things that count must have had the Ferris baseball team in mind.
Because several little things added up to one big 7-1 victory Tuesday night over regular-season Greater Spokane League champion Mt. Spokane in the District 8 4A playoffs at Avista Stadium, giving the Saxons another state appearance.
A team feared for its hitting, Ferris actually hit the ball hard only three times against a trio of Wildcats pitchers. But Ferris coupled execution and opportunism into runs and got stalwart pitching by junior Caleb Rath that ended Mt. Spokane’s season at 16-6, short of a coveted state trip.
Rath not only pitched, but seemed to be in the middle of most of the big plays in Ferris’s game. He went 2 for 4, scored one run and drove in another.
“We just felt we wanted to put the game in motion a little bit and play small ball,” said Ferris coach John Thacker. “Hit and run – if we had to lay down some bunts, we were going to do that. When you do that once in a while you execute, and it paid off for us.”
The Wildcats (16-6) committed two costly errors and three Saxons scored after walking.
Ferris (17-7) took advantage of a botched tailor-made, double-play opportunity by Mt. Spokane and scored two third-inning runs.
Bud Kittredge got a hit that bounded high several times over the middle of the infield and just eluded the Wildcats defense.
Casey Brett followed with a sacrifice fly.
During a four-run fourth, Kyle Krustangel and Brett hit a pair of screamers, Brett’s for his second RBI. Otherwise, it was a soft grounder and perfectly executed squeeze by Alex King to plate a hard-charging Rath that made Mt. Spokane pay for a walk and hit batsman.
Rath’s lined single to left in the fifth after Kyle Krustangel was hit plated the final run.
On the mound, Rath was a different pitcher than the one who started the season unable to find home plate. He faced only 15 batters through four innings and didn’t walk any until the fifth, when he offered up a pass to Nick Strum and hit Cameron Joslyn.
But he got out of that inning before running out of gas.
“I started off the beginning of the year kind of shaky: too many walks,” Rath said. “This game I just had more confidence. I just want out there with a plan to get ahead, throw strikes and let my teammates played defense. I stayed focused out there as long as I could.”
He left the mound in the sixth for Chris Bozo with one out and the bases loaded, but his work wasn’t yet done.
From left field, Rath cut down Marcos Armendariz trying to score from second on Bryan Rayner’s hit, blunting a potential threat.
Bozo then retired the next four batters to end the game.
“North Central was the turnaround game for Caleb,” said Thacker. “It was the last game of the season and he went five strong innings. All of a sudden, you could see he started to be around the plate more. His timing and released point started to come together.”
Thacker said it was Rath’s best appearance of the year.
“He had some pop in his fastball, located it pretty good today and was ahead of the hitters. He got his curve ball over when he needed to,” said Thacker. “He was working on all cylinders today. It came at the right time, too.”
Ferris joins district champion Shadle Park in the first weekend of State 4A play. As the GSL’s No. 2 state entrant, the Saxons are scheduled to play at Big Nine Conference district champion Southridge (16-7) in Kennewick in the 1 p.m. tournament opener on Saturday.
Shadle will follow against Richland (20-2).
“Two years ago we went down there and lost,” said Rath. “Let’s hope we can go down and avenge that loss.”
Thacker echoed the sentiment.
“Our goal at the start of the year was to get out of town,” he said. “We had a good week here of baseball. Today was the best of the bunch.”