An early-season baseball game never seemed to matter so much.
That proved to be the case Tuesday afternoon, when Tahoma came back from a late two-run deficit to knock off rival Kentlake 6-2 in nine innings in a South Puget Sound League North Division game between two teams expected to vie for this season’s division title.
Tied 2-2 in the top of the ninth inning, Tahoma’s Chris Marangon drove home Thomas Hammett and Taylor Smart with a sinking line-drive double down the left field line. Marangon’s hit keyed Tahoma’s ninth-inning, four-run rally, and proved to be good enough to help the Bears seal the victory at Kentlake High.
“This win is huge because they’re one of the top teams in the state,” Marangon said of Kentlake, which won last year’s SPSL North crown and went on to take a school-best second at state. “We definitely can play with these guys every time. It shows we can play with the best. I love playing against Kentlake.”
The game was vintage Kentlake-Tahoma baseball. The only two teams in the North to advance to state last spring, the Falcons and Bears split a pair of games a year ago. Kentlake took the first matchup (4-2) before being outlasted by Tahoma in the season finale (9-8 in eight innings).
Tuesday night’s showdown, the SPSL North opener for both teams, was no different.
Kentlake, the favorite to win this year’s division title, broke a 0-0 tie in the fifth inning thanks to run-scoring singles from Stephen Morse and Andy Enders. Tahoma right-hander Marangon entered the inning with a no-hitter and having allowed just one baserunner through the first four frames.
The 2-0 lead appeared safe for the Falcons, especially with ace right-hander Zach Wright on the mound. Wright mowed through the first five innings, allowing just two hits while consistently being clocked between 85 and 89 miles per hour.
Enders relieved Wright in the sixth and struggled to find his command during a frigid afternoon, walking four and registering just one out, resulting in a pair of Tahoma runs. Enders then gave way to big Kentlake right-hander Miles Nagel, who helped the Falcons escape further damage.
Kentlake threatened in both the seventh and eighth innings, putting baserunners on second base in each frame, but were unable to come through with a clutch hit.
“We had plenty of opportunities to do it,” said Kentlake coach Jason Evans. “I don’t know if we thought we were going to come out and win 16 straight. We have a lot of mental work to do I think.”
Clutch hitting is one thing that didn’t elude the Falcons last season. Kentlake was held to two or fewer runs just once last season, that coming in the state championship game against Snohomish. But Tuesday night with the game on the line, the Falcons simply didn’t have an answer for Tahoma sidewinding right-hander Zach Aaker, who delivered two scoreless innings in relief to pick up the win.
During a similar scenario in relief last year against Kentlake, Aaker came in and allowed a game-tying, three-run homer to Bobby Joe Tannehill.
That wasn’t going to happen Tuesday afternoon as Aaker appeared to be in midseason form.
“I tell you what, if anybody deserves to come out here and get a ‘W’ it’s Zach,” said Tahoma coach Russ Hayden. “For him, that’s redemption. He’s got to feel good about that. He’s tough.”
Three Tahoma pitchers — Marangon, Justin Cloud and Aaker — combined to allow just four Kentlake hits, all singles. Kentlake’s group of pitchers — Wright, Enders, Nagel and Lewi Larsen — were nearly as tough, yielding seven hits, four of which came in the decisive ninth inning.
Tahoma’s Smart was the only player on either team to collect more than one hit. Smart delivered a single in the first and another in the ninth.
“We scrapped and scrapped to get the runs we did and I feel like our ballclub is way better than two runs a game,” Evans said. “There’s nobody that should keep us at two runs a game.”
