Rainier’s five-game winning streak snapped in loss to Rochester

The Mountaineers brought plenty of momentum into Friday’s non-conference home matchup against Rochester on Friday, May 2.

Winners of their last five, Rainier piled up nine first-inning runs against a then two-loss Wahkiakum in a 14-2 run-rule rout on Wednesday, April 30. Peyton Sheaffer pitched all five innings, striking out four while allowing four hits and two runs (one earned). At the plate, Sheaffer went 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs, including one triple. Kaden Goodman added three hits off three at-bats. Six Rainier batters recorded hits.

Against Rochester, however, the Rainier offense sputtered. A lack of hits, combined with some sketchy fielding in the fourth inning, contributed to the 8-2 loss.

The five runs allowed in the fourth almost never happened.

Down 2-1, Rainier pitcher Hunter Howell had just struck out his last two batters after walking his first two. Looking to finish the side, Howell gave up soft contact to Dane Akin that somehow slipped its way into right field, allowing a Rochester runner to score. The Warriors singled in their next at-bat to bring in a second runner. Another error, this time at shortstop, loaded the bases.

Ethan Rodriguez stepped up and singled into right, scoring two more runs to put the Warriors up five.

After allowing one more run off a bases-loaded walk, Howell was replaced by Dayton Gardner. Gardner struck out the next batter to get the Mountaineers out of the jam.

Gardner and fellow reliever Yazama Gurnsey would combine to allow only one more run the rest of the game, but Rainier was never able to help with its bats. The Mountaineers finished with three hits, one from Sheaffer, one from Howell and one from Kaymen Larman. Gardner also added an RBI.

Senior Kole Smith pitched three innings for Rochester, allowing one unearned run. He was one of three pitchers for the Warriors. Howell, who received the loss for Rainier, allowed one earned run in three and two-thirds innings. He racked up 95 pitches before giving way to Gardner in the fourth.

“It was unfortunate because Hunter (Howell) was dialed in,” Rainier head coach Justin Gurnsey said after the game. “He was pitching great, he’s getting soft contact, ground balls, which is exactly what we want, but our defense just didn’t support him. We just didn’t put the defensive effort that we need to play with the other teams.”

Gurnsey said Rainier’s hitting has been solid over the last two weeks, and he thought the pitching against Rochester was effective. It was the defense that, in his words, was “suspect.”

“When we bring the energy (on defense) and want the baseball and are ready to make the plays, we can compete with anyone,” Gurnsey said. “We were just on our heels, we just weren’t making the throws, we weren’t scooping the ball like we needed to. So, it’s like, this was a great show of what we need to focus in on for the next week before playoffs.”

Gurnsey likes where his team’s pitching is heading into elimination play.

“Hunter got up to 90 pitches, and I wanted to focus on getting him about four innings, getting Dayton (Gardner) in there. It was helpful that he came in a stressful situation because that’s when he’s at his best. But I didn’t want to go too long with him and I wanted to get (Yazama Gurnsey) a couple innings in there, too, just so they would all be dialed in.”

Rainier’s other ace, Peyton Sheaffer, played shortstop versus the Warriors.
The Rainier head coach thinks the previous two games will help prepare the Mountaineers for the stronger pitching they know they will face in the district tournament.

“I thought I would have preferred to have the non-league games at the beginning of season to tune us up,” Gurnsey said. “But, because the end of our season we were playing some of the teams at the bottom of the bracket, we didn’t see the pitching that I know we’re going to see in the playoffs, so I was really glad that we got to play these non-league games now, just so we could see the pitching that we’re going to see.”

“It gave us that blueprint for us to work on,” Gurnsey said.

The Mountaineers (8-10, 7-9 Central 2B League) finished the regular season in sixth place in the Central 2B League and now look to the WIAA Class 2B District 4 tournament, where they will face the third-place team out of Pacific 2B. The game will be held at Napavine on Saturday, May 10, at 11:00 a.m.
The winner will play Napavine immediately following, at 2 p.m.