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closeGig Harbor eliminated from district
Tahoma, Central Kitsap give Tides troubles in playoffs
Marques Hunter
of the Gateway
KENT — The playoffs can bring out the best or worst in a high school team. For the Gig Harbor baseball squad, it brought out a combination of fielding errors and unproductive hitting in two games Saturday against the Tahoma Bears and Central Kitsap Cougars at Kent Memorial Park.
Gig Harbor needed just one win to reach the pool of 16 teams in the Class 4A state tournament. But Tahoma and Central Kitsap both shut out the Tides, snapping Gig Harbor’s 10-game winning streak going into the West Central District III tournament.
After a 10-0 shutout by the Tahoma Bears — the No. 1 seed from the South Puget Sound League — the Tides faced the Cougars about four hours later. Gig Harbor beat Central Kitsap in extra innings last week to earn the No. 3 seed to district.
But this time around, the Cougars took advantage of the Tides’ shaky defense and added power to finish them off, 13-0.
Gig Harbor’s Mike McCall got through the first inning on the mound without allowing a run, but the Cougars scored in each of the next four to open up a sizable lead.
Gig Harbor went to the bullpen to stem the tide with juniors David Bigelow and Scott Schultz.
The Cougars continued to find gaps. Then, with the bases loaded in the fifth, Central Kitsap’s Drew Vettlesen hit a grand slam clear over the centerfield wall to end the game via 10-run mercy rule.
Tides coach Pete Jansen said it’s difficult to have such a long break after a loss and be able to play well later in the day.
“We couldn’t get our bats going today, and we had some defensive lapses,” he said. “It was a tough way to end the season, especially since we were playing so well.”
Gig Harbor committed a total of eight errors, and it had four hits in both games. Against the Cougars earlier this season, the Tides scored four runs against the same starter they saw on Saturday.
“I thought for sure we should’ve hit the ball hard against him,” Jansen said. “We’ve got some guys who are big swingers, and when someone is throwing off-speed, sometimes we get too aggressive at the plate.”
The Tides ended the season 14-8 overall.