Game of inches

Baseball’s outcome, in this game of inches, can hinge on any number of things.

For Mt. Spokane, which lost 2-0 at home to Kamiakin on Tuesday’s opening day of the 3A regional baseball playoffs, it was a play in the fifth inning.

A pickoff at second base with two runners in scoring position and one out killed a rally that could have produced one run if not more.

That turning point thwarted any chance at a comeback because few scoring opportunities presented themselves.

Braves hurler Nick Opitz pitched a two-hitter and the fifth inning was the Wildcats’ best chance. One other player reached as far as second base, and runners who got on in every other inning did so with two outs.

“We didn’t play bad,” said Mt. Spokane coach Alex Schuerman. “We made a couple of errors that didn’t hurt us and Nic Fowler pitched great. We just didn’t hit and you can’t win when you score zero runs.”

Now Mt. Spokane, like North Central – victorious in a loser-out game – must win three consecutive games to reach state. NC’s Indians, staring at a 10-5 sixth-inning deficit, scored eight times for a 13-10 victory over Eastmont.

Opitz and Fowler came out slinging, secure in the knowledge that a brisk wind coming straight in from center field would keep the hitters in Mt. Spokane’s ballpark.

Fowler retired the first eight hitters he faced before stranding Braves runners at second and third through three innings. He ran into one-out trouble in the fourth, giving up a pair of singles and walk to load the bases, but only one run scored.

He nearly got out of that inning unscathed. The run came on Jason Jones’ slow infield grounder that he just beat out to prevent an inning-ending double play.

In the fifth inning, Kamiakin No. 9 hitter Zach Beeler doubled and eventually scored on two sacrifices, a two-strike bunt and fly to right field. It was the extent of the Braves’ scoring.

“The bottom of our order has produced all year and Beehler had another big hit,” said Kamiakin coach Rex Easley, who added he bats Beehler ninth because he so often leads off innings. “Brady Farrington’s two-strike bunt was a big play in the game, too.”

Opitz did his job well. Mt. Spokane’s hits were identical doubles scorched just inside the third-base line by Bryan Raynor and Nikko Sotolongo.

Raynor’s came with two outs in the third. Sotolongo’s put runners at second and third in the fifth. But the threat died on the pickoff of the pinch runner for Sotolongo.

“It was my fault,” said Schuerman. “I put a jayvee kid in and he just froze. He was faster and I thought we might steal a run with a single.”

Instead, with two outs, Tyler Jackson’s slow grounder to short, which would have scored one run, ended the inning.

“That (pickoff play),” said Easley, “might have been the turning point of the game. They had momentum and a base hit could have tied it.”

Unfortunately, the game pitted two of the state’s top-10 ranked 3A teams against each other early. Schuerman allowed that this region might be tougher than the state bracket. Easley pointed out the 3A portion of the Columbia Basin League, three teams strong, was stronger than the 4A.

The Wildcats (18-3) host West Valley (Yakima), a 10-0 winner over Hanford, in loser-out action at 4 p.m. Friday.

“This is a resilient group,” said Schuerman. “They’ll find a way to win.”

North Central 13, Eastmont 10: The Indians (13-8) faced an uphill battle in their playoff opener against visiting Eastmont.

They trailed early 4-0 and 9-2, and they still were down by five runs before erupting in the sixth inning.

Two-run singles by Eastmont pitchers Jacob Huylar and Seth Hael and a two-run homer by Colby Crawford, one of two hit by the visitors in the game, had put NC in the early hole.

But in the sixth, the Indians parlayed four hits, three walks and a pair of errors into the victory. Cory Swennumson had an RBI single in the frame and Petero Faragke bunted home the tying run.

NC’s Boone Plager had four hits and scored three times. He tripled during a two-run fourth inning that cut the deficit to 9-4. Ryan Richardson also tripled and Evan Witt had two hits.

The victory sends the Indians on the road Friday to Southridge in Kennewick.

Southridge lost 5-4 to Kennewick, which advances against Kamiakin in a winner-to-state game Saturday.