The CWLL Majors baseball squad can have plenty more celebrations like this, if the Wolves reignite their bats. (Carron Chernobieff photo)
The bats went silent at the worst possible moment.
Unable to muster any kind of sustained offensive attack Monday, the Central Whidbey Little League Majors baseball squad fell 6-0 to arch-rival South Whidbey in the opening game of the District 11 All-Stars tourney.
While the loss drops the Wolves to 10-7 on the season, they’re still alive in the six-team, double-elimination royal rumble.
Central Whidbey returns to Oak Harbor’s Windjammer Park Wednesday to face either Burlington-Edison or Sedro-Woolley in a loser-out game.
First pitch, weather permitting, is set for 6 PM.
If the Wolves want to play further into the tournament, which runs through Sunday, they’ll need to find a way to fire-up their bats, and not repeat Monday’s two-hit, 16-strikeout showing at the plate.
“We are just unable at times to get the bat off our shoulders or get a string of swings to make contact,” said Central coach Jon Roberts. “We saw five really good pitchers today, but we just looked flat.”
There was a point mid-way through the game where it looked like Central Whidbey would never make contact, as its first 11 batters all went down swinging.
That finally changed when catcher Chase Anderson thumped a two-out single down the first-base line in the top of the fourth, breaking up a most discouraging day at the plate for the Wolves.
South Whidbey, while finally dinged, struck right back, gunning down Anderson as he tried to steal second, then whiffing five more batters over the final two innings.
The second Central Whidbey hit came courtesy Camden Glover, and it was a beauty.
Hitting with two outs and no one aboard in the fifth, he cranked a shot to right field for a solid base-knock, then scampered to second on a passed ball while John Rachal was hitting.
Rachal smoked a shot on the next pitch, sending a skipper towards third, but South Whidbey’s defense was air-tight, and that was it for any hint of offense from the Wolves.
While it couldn’t generate any runs, Central Whidbey stayed in the game thanks to strong pitching and a couple of defensive gems.
South Whidbey scored in each of the first four innings, but couldn’t push across more than two runs in any frame.
Keeping things tamped down, the Wolves came up with back-to-back big plays in the field in the bottom of the second.
With two runners aboard and no one out, Central Whidbey thwarted a rally, thanks to Anderson making something out of nothing.
A pitch from Wolf hurler Landon Roberts got loose, but his catcher spun, chased down the ball, then whirled and pegged a near-perfect throw right into Glover’s mitt at third.
Ball kissed leather, the tag was slapped with precision, and what looked like a potential back-breaker of a play turned into a positive moment for Central Whidbey in about two blinks of an eye.
On the next play Jack Porter came crashing in from center field, went to his knees, then made a superb catch on a rapidly-falling ball which had extra bases written all over it.
Those plays, and a well-timed relay later in the game, which broke up a double steal and nailed an incoming runner at home, gave Wolf fans something to cheer about.
That, and effective work from a four-pack of pitchers.
Roberts carried the brunt of the workload, toeing the rubber through the first 2.1 innings, before Porter, Glover, and Anderson combined to share the final 2.2 frames.
All four Wolf pitchers recorded two strikeouts apiece, with Central Whidbey putting together a rare four-strikeout inning in the third.
Roberts and Porter split the K’s, but on the first one, the third strike got away from Anderson and the batter broke for first.
Once again the Wolf catcher made an alert, head-ups play, though this time he wasn’t rewarded.
Snatching up the bouncing ball, Anderson lunged and appeared to have tagged South Whidbey’s slugger from behind. But, after a long discussion, the game’s three umps declined to give him the call.
Now that they’re in the playoffs, the Wolves will likely be out-manned at every step along the way.
While South Whidbey has two teams to combine into one all-star squad, North Whidbey has four, and all the off-Island programs boast large talent pools, Central Whidbey has 11 players, total.
Aiden O’Neill, Johnny Porter, Marcelo Gebhard, Jordan Bradford, Alex Smith, and Jacob Schooley round out the Wolf roster.
Which doesn’t mean Central Whidbey has to go down without a fight. The key will be how big a fight it chooses to generate.
As the Wolves prepare for Wednesday’s game, their coaching staff wants to see a game-long effort which matches the intensity shown on that dropped third-strike play by their catcher.
“That’s what we talked about after the game,” Jon Roberts said. “They have to want this, they have to have that desire to win at all costs.
“They have to be willing to dive for every ball, hustle on every play, make some noise, show some life out there.”
And getting a few hits wouldn’t hurt, either.
South Whidbey’s unsung MVP:
While the future Falcons got stellar work from a wide variety of players, we’re honoring Alexander Zarifis, whose dad Steve is the South Whidbey coach.
The plucky younger Zarifis had the friendliest fan club of any rival player, plus he showed a laser-like focus while warming up a teammate in between innings.
Said fan club, led by older sister Caitlin, who appeared in many a production of The Nutcracker with Coupeville dance royalty like Skyy Lippo, did its best hootin’ and hollerin’ as Alexander worked next to the left field fence.
Eyes hidden behind his sun glasses, he was having none of it, however, whipping the ball back and forth, ignoring his family’s efforts to make him blush.
Kid’s a freakin’ Terminator, he is. Just the way his dad/coach probably likes it.
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