BATTLE GROUND — This league.
This Class 4A Greater St. Helens League baseball season.
Just.
Whatever.
Anything goes.
The Union Titans are in fifth place, but only two losses away from first place.
Tuesday, they kept things closer — from their perspective at least — with a 10-0 victory over a team that was tied for first place heading into the game.
The Battle Ground Tigers are now in third place, percentage points-wise, at least.
This league, huh?
“We had a lot of close games, losing a lot in the last innings,” Union pitcher Cole Susee said. “Little mistakes have cost us. We’re trying to build off those mistakes.”
No mistake about Tuesday’s win. Susee limited Battle Ground to three hits, and the Titans scored eight runs in the sixth inning to turn a close game into game called by the mercy rule.
“This league is so competitive,” said catcher Grant Dedrick-Malcom, who drove in a team-high three runs in the win. “Those four losses we had in a week-and-a-half were rough, but we’re learning from it.
“Put pressure on them instead of us.”
Battle Ground was hoping to get this win to set itself up in a quality position going down the home stretch of the league season. In theory anyway, the Tigers have the easier schedule in their final four games compared to the other teams chasing a league title.
The Tigers (9-5 in the 4A GSHL) still remain in a good place, just not as comfortable as they would have preferred.
Union, meanwhile, improved to 6-6 and has six to play.
The two teams were scoreless through four innings before the Titans loaded the bases with a hit batsmen and two walks. Dedrick-Malcom drove home two runs with a single.
“It was a great feeling. I was oh-for-two at that point. I wasn’t producing,” he said. “Getting things started for us was a pretty good feeling.”
Susee and Union defense got out of a self-inflicted jam in the bottom of the fifth after the first two Tigers reached via error. A double-play and a fly ball kept it a 2-0.
Then it all fell apart for the Tigers in the sixth. A hit batter — Battle Ground pitchers would hit five Titans on this day — and back-to-back errors loaded the bases. Jordan Donohue’s single scored the first two runs of the frame. Later, R.J. Quirante had a two-run single. And the Titans scored four more runs off a walk, a hit batter, and two ground-outs.
In all, the Titans scored 10 runs on a total of five hits.
This league, after all.
