The Woodland baseball team opened this season trying to swing for the fences.
But the Beavers discovered Tuesday that the little things more often add up to a lot more.
With every player in the lineup making some kind of contribution, the Beavers strung together a nine-run fifth inning and rally past King’s Way Christian 11-6 in a non-league game Tuesday at Luke Jensen Park.
“To start the season, we had those sunny days, and I think guys wanted to see the ball leave the yard,” Woodland coach Hunter Huddleston said. “But after we got it handed to us by Kalama (a 10-5 loss) on Monday, we had a team meeting. I told the guys the fundamentals were there, but we needed to re-evaluate our passion. We weren’t going to win with guys playing for themselves. They went home, slept on it, then came out today and played some good team baseball.”
Huddleston saw it right away when the Beavers got an early run of King’s Way pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs.
Wyatt Autrey started the game with a walk and Christian Yager singled. Then the Beavers had two groundouts that moved Avery around and in with the first run.
“That guy is a Division-I pitcher,” Huddleston said of Casetta-Stubbs. “We just took what he gave us, put the ball in play and moved the line. It was good to see.”
King’s Way took a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning behind a double by Casetta-Stubbs and a triple by freshman Bryce Dodge.
Woodland’s first inning success proved to be a sign of bigger things to come in the fifth inning when Casetta-Stubbs was out of the game.
After King’s Way added two runs in the fourth inning to take a 6-1 lead, Autrey and Yager opened the fifth inning with back-to-back singles. Baily Huston’s two-run single and Brenden Williams RBI single got Woodland within 6-4. Brady Burns had a sacrifice fly as the rally was aided by two King’s Way errors.
Travis Pitner’s double gave Woodland a 7-6 lead. As the lineup batted around, Autrey singled to make it 8-6, and Yager capped the inning with a two-run single.
After getting knocked around in the first inning a little, freshman pitcher Ryan Cooney settled down to pitch four innings and get the win.
“I thought Ryan did a nice job bouncing back after a rough start,” Huddleston said. “But we feel like he’s going to our ace, and he’s just a freshman.”
Wyatt Wooden finished the game, pitching three shutout innings to complete the win.
Autrey was 2 for 3 with two walks, Yager was 3 for 4 and Cooney was 2 for 2 and twice was hit by a pitch.
Casetta-Stubbs struck out five in three innings in the season opener for the King’s Way Christian. He was also 2 for 3 with a double and a triple. Blake Scully went 3 for 3.
