Titans’ mixed bag starts with big rally

RICHLAND – University’s baseball season may have ended in a 15-5 loss to Richland late Saturday afternoon, but say this about the Titans – there was no quit in them.

An improbable comeback from an 11-2 fifth-inning deficit six hours earlier highlighted a day in which U-Hi reached the State 4A quarterfinals for the second time in school history.

The Titans shocked Moses Lake 12-11 in the 10 a.m. opener after the Chiefs twice ran themselves out of innings that might have ended the game in five innings via the 10-run rule.

Jacob Olsufka sliced a two-run double down the right-field line and into the corner of the Richland High baseball stadium with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to complete the rally.

It set off a raucous celebration following a comeback of monumental proportion, the likes of which players had seldom seen.

“Not at this level,” said Titans coach Scott Sutherland. “I thought we could score runs. But normally you don’t give up 11 and win.”

The Chiefs had put a five-spot on U-Hi in the first inning, when starter Billy Moon had trouble finding the strike zone. Seven of his first eight pitches were balls and he put the first three batters on base either by walks or hit by pitch.

There followed a two-run single by Brett Fredericksen, who went 3 for 4 with two doubles and drove in four runs.

Jacob Lacelle followed with a three-run home run that put the Titans in an early hole.

Moses Lake scored two more in the fourth and four in the fifth for its seemingly insurmountable lead.

But then came the rally. After setting down the Titans for three innings and facing a minimum nine batters, pitcher Troy Stephens faltered. Three successive hits, including doubles by Olsufka and Moon, scored a couple of seemingly inconsequential runs. The next inning Moon hit a two-run single.

In the sixth, Danny Jordan hit his first high school home run, a three-run shot that cut the lead to 11-7 and prompted a bystander to say, “We have a game.”

“My second at-bat I thought I got all of it,” Jordan said. “But it got up in the wind and they picked it up. This time I saw the changeup out of his hand. It felt good.”

Then came the decisive seventh. It began with a Moses Lake error, a one-out infield single and two more base hits. The later was a high pop fly by Kyle Barker that dropped in between the right fielder and second baseman.

Following a strikeout, Jordan drove in his fourth run of the game to make it 11-10.

Olsufka, a sophomore, completed the comeback.

“I’ve seen nothing quite like that. It’s amazing,” he said. “I was just looking for a ball to put in play.”

The fact that Moon was struggling had prompted Sutherland to bring in Jordan to relieve in the fourth. It exhausted U-Hi’s two best pitchers, putting the team at a disadvantage against the favored Bombers.

Three sophomores were called upon, including starter Olsufka, and they issued nine walks, which set the table for Nick Lundgren and Brett Jacobs. Lundgren was 3 for 5 and Jacobs 2 for 4 and each drove in three runs.

Already trailing 4-0, a six-run fourth put the Titans in another hole. But they responded by scoring four runs.

“I told you all year they just don’t panic,” said Sutherland. “The coaches might but they don’t. They just all believe in themselves and don’t get down.”

Against Richland, however, they finally ran out of time.