EHS baseball wraps up season with wins

The Eatonville High School baseball team picked up a pair of wins last week to conclude the 2021 season on a two-game win streak.

On Wednesday, the Cruisers hosted their longtime rivals, the Orting Cardinals. This would be the rubber match game for the two schools, with Eatonville winning the first meeting, 7-2, and the Cardinals taking the win in the second meeting, 20-5.

The Cruisers scored first, in the fourth inning, when Jakob Lucht drove in Blain Hanly. The Cruisers scored four runs that inning on their way to a 10-0 mercy-rule shortened five-inning game.

Lucht drove in three Cruiser base runners in the game.

Freshman Riley Storm led the Cruisers at the plate with two hits.

Junior pitcher Ashton Meyer went the distance for the Cruisers and picked up the win. Meyer allowed only two Cardinal hits while striking out a season-high eight batters and only walking two.

The Cruisers finished their season with a trip to Tacoma to take on the Foss Falcons and walked away with a 16-1 blowout victory.

Skylar Sarpy was credited with the win on the mound. The right hander went two innings, allowing one run on three hits, striking out four and walking none. Sarpy and five other Cruiser pitchers combined to allow only four Falcon hits on the day while striking out 11.

At the plate, Hanly led the Cruisers with two hits, while EJ McMains drove in three to lead the team in RBIs.

On the season, Hanly led the Cruisers with a .441 batting average, 15 hits, 18 runs scored, 15 walks, 21 total bases, .617 slugging percentage and .627 on-base percentage. His season on-base percentage set a new single-season Cruiser record.

On the mound for the Cruisers, Payton Hanly led the team with three wins and 19 strike outs.

With the team only losing one senior this year, next year’s squad will look to improve on this season’s 7-7 record as they move into the 1A Evergreen league.

Head coach Mike Moeller said he was happy with how the shortened season turned out.

“I was really happy with how we progressed this year,” he said. “It was really tough coming into the season and having only five days to prepare before the first game after missing an entire season in 2020. I am just thankful that we got to play and be back on the field. Even though it was a shortened season, I feel we made some big strides forward in our player development, and I am excited about where we are at heading into next year. We have some wonderful kids on this team, and it was just a joy to be back on the field with these boys this season. [I] look forward to getting back on the field with this group in 2021.”