Things didn’t look good for the Skyview baseball team after the first three Storm players struck out on 10 total pitches from Kentridge pitcher Sam Dacus in the first inning.
It didn’t get better in the top of the second when two errors and a wild pitch led to two Kentridge runs.
But the Storm did not think twice about the deficit, playing on with a been-there-done-that attitude.
Reiley Henderson delivered a pair of run-scoring triples and freshman Avery Schmidt went 2 for 2 with a double and two RBI as Skyview rallied for a 7-2 win Tuesday in the first round of the Class 4A bi-district tournament.
“We just have so much confidence right that we know if we play our game for seven innings, we can compete with anyone in the state,” Henderson said.
By advancing to the semifinals of the bi-district tournament — where they will face Puyallup on Saturday — the Storm clinched a berth to next week’s state regional.
The rally for Skyview started with Brayden Maney’s solo home run in the second inning, and the Storm added the tying run without the use of a hit in the third inning.
Then with two out in the fourth, Schmidt delivered an RBI single to give Skyview the lead. Henderson followed with the first of his two triples to make it 4-2.
Again with two outs in the sixth, Schmidt doubled home another run, then Henderson tripled again. Curtis Perrin completed the scoring with a double.
“How about that? From a freshman in the No. 9 spot,” Skyview coach Eric Estes said of Schmidt, adding that the freshman had some key at-bats in last week’s big comeback against Heritage in the district title game.
“I think that’s when the light bulb went off in his head, and he learned, ‘Hey, I belong here,’ ” Estes said of Schmidt. “And Reiley, he’s been clutch in the latter half of the season.”
Senior pitcher Ian Hamilton shook off those two unerned runs in the second and finished with seven strong innings, giving up five hits and one walk while striking out eight.
“Now we get to go up north and try to get a good seed into state,” Estes said. “Then it’s off to regionals. We were there last year, and lost a tough one. But I think that experience will be invaluable to us going forward.”
