Wolverine baseball and softball teams win over Grace Academy

By Greg Sellentin • March 20, 2017 4:40 pm

The Wolverine boys baseball team braved the rain and chilly temperatures to win 6-1, and the girls fast pitch softball team won by a margin of 18-1, over Grace Academy despite playing in cold and rainy conditions.

“This was our second game of the season, and we played played much better than the first one. It’s pretty hard to tell in the mud though,” boys baseball head coach Rich Warin jokes. “This season is the least we’ve been able to practice outdoors on the field in a long time. We are going to improve all year, and we have a good group of student athletes. We have four seniors and they are all starters. Overall we didn’t make as many mental mistakes in this game, but we left way too many runners on base. We didn’t have any errors. Our pitcher Kai Herko had a perfect game going through four innings. Rio Black had two hits and three RBI’s in this game.”

The rainy weather during practice season has hampered the team’s ability to practice outdoors.

“We need to practice outdoors and not in the batting cage like we have been doing. All the spring sports are in the same boat. We share a gym with the track team. I’m very happy with the way we progressed not having much practice ouside. Let’s face it, you can only have kids indoors doing the same drills so many days in a row before they lose focus. We have a great group of focused kids, but it is pretty hard to stay that way day after day,” Coach Warin explained.

The Wolverine defense kept Grace Academy to only one score throughout the entire 9 innings.

“We were much improved in the field,” says Coach Warin.

Playing in the field under these rainy and chilly conditions can be tough for the players in the field with little motion and activity between plays to keep warm.

“The biggest deal in that weather is to keep the home plate and the pitcher’s mound dry. If the pitchers can’t get footing, and can’t control their pitches, that’s where it gets dangerous. The home plate umpire has the authority to call the game. We had guys keeping those areas relatively dry constantly,” said Coach Warin.

The girls fast pitch softball game was stopped after the top of the fifth inning because of excessive score. In her second season as starting pitcher for Friday Harbor, Emma Wickman pitched an almost perfect game, only allowing one run. Susanna Hoffman had an in the park home run, and Ava Hoffman had an in the park triple to round out the team’s stellar performance.

The Wolverines ball players, both girls and boys, will play at home next on Thursday, March 30 against Darrington starting at 4:45 p.m.