Rainier High School’s Hunter Howell finished his first start of the season on the mound earlier than he wanted against Morton-White Pass on Friday, March 15. He went three innings and allowed five runs and struck out six batters.
But he made up for it in the sixth inning with a two-run triple smoked into right field, and he scored the game-tying run after a sacrifice groundout. The Mountaineers rallied off Howell’s heroics and crawled back from a 6-1 deficit to beat the Timberwolves, 11-7, in their home opener.
“I wanted to take it opposite field and advance my runners. We wanted to win any way possible, and it started with getting runs and the lead back,” Howell said after the win.
MWP built a 2-0 first-inning lead off of Howell, capitalizing on his two early walks with a RBI single that scored a second run after a Rainier outfield error.
The junior pitcher bounced back in the second inning, striking out the side with all three batters swinging through the third strike.
Rainier gave its pitcher some run support thanks to eighth grader Kaymen Larmen’s RBI single to score senior Jared Sprouffske. The Mountaineers couldn’t bring the tying run home after Peyton Sheaffer struck out with a runner on second.
MWP opened up a 5-1 run in the third inning with three hits, including two that brought in a run, and a sacrifice groundout.
The Mountaineers looked sloppy at times, committing two errors and a passed ball that scored the Timberwolves’ sixth run of the evening in the fourth inning.
“They just need to get out of their own way. They need to make sure that no matter what happens on the field, they’re just focused on the moment and taking care of that moment,” head coach Justin Gurnsey said.
Junior Dayton Gardner replaced Howell on the mound to start the fourth, and after giving up the fourth-inning run, he settled in nicely for Rainier. He shut down the Timberwolves in the fifth, allowing the Mountaineers to creep within two runs with a three-run fifth.
MWP pulled ahead by three in the sixth due to an error by Sprouffske behind the plate in which he dropped the third strike that would have ended the inning. In the bottom half of the inning, the Mountaineers were motivated to give Gardner the opportunity to close the game out in the seventh.
Senior Johnny Boesch led off the inning with a single before eighth grader Yazama Gurnsey advanced him to third with a walk and MWP error. Howell, on a 2-1 count, let loose on a fly ball that flew over the right fielder’s head, scoring both Boesch and Yazama Gurnsey to make it a 7-6 game.
Howell came home on a sacrifice groundout by senior Ryder Cruse to tie the game, but the Mountaineers were far from done in the inning. RBIs by Gardner, Blake Fennel, and two by Boesch pushed Rainier out in front, 11-7. Gardner’s sac groundout to score Sprouffske from second gave Rainier its first lead of the game.
After the seven-run inning, Gardner told his coaches that he wanted to finish the game.
“I liked at the end of the game, he went, ‘Coach, I got this.’ He had the right attitude,” Justin Gurnsey said of his junior pitcher.
Gardner slammed the door by striking out the side in the seventh to clinch the 11-7 victory. He finished with nine strikeouts in four innings, giving up just two hits and two runs, one earned on 63 pitches.
“I was just on it today. I was throwing good strikes and keeping my mechanics good. It felt really good to get back out there,” he said. “I wanted to finish the game because I just got fired up since I saw we were in the lead, and I wanted to be the person to close it out.”
Rainier finished with 13 hits and 10 stolen bases on offense, and it capitalized on 10 MWP errors. Boesch led the way with three hits, while five different batters each drove in a pair of runs.
Rainier improves to 2-0 after opening the season with a win over MWP on the road on Thursday, March 14 by a score of 6-5. The Mountaineers have already reached a third of their win total from last year, as they won six games all year.
“It’s nice to start off on the right foot. We faced some adversity, and we were able to overcome it. On Monday, we built a lead and they came back but we held on,” coach Gurnsey said. “It shows that we can win in both ways.”
The Mountaineers will hit the road to face Kalama High School for a double-header on Monday, March 18, with the first bout beginning at 3 p.m. After a road non-league game against Mossyrock on Wednesday, March 20, they return home on Saturday, March 23 at 12 p.m. for a date with Central 2B League opponent Toledo.
