Cruisers defeat Sentinels 7-1 at Cheney Stadium

The Eatonville Cruiser baseball team ended the week playing the Spanaway Lake Sentinels at Cheney Stadium, the home of the Mariners AAA farm team, the Tacoma Rainiers.

Each year the Tacoma Rainiers host roughly six high school baseball games for local teams. . The Rainiers then ask each team to sell 350 tickets to an upcoming Rainiers game. Spanaway Lake High School received one of the games and invited Eatonville to be the Sentinels’ opponent.

May 29 will be Eatonville Cruiser Night at Cheney Stadium. Tickets are being sold at the Eatonville High School main office for $15 each, which includes admission to the game as well as a ballpark meal.

Friday, the Cruisers turned the excitement of playing in Cheney Stadium up a few notches and had four pitchers combine to throw a no-hitter and take a 7-1 victory.

Pitchers Payton Hanly, Ashton Meyer, Riley Storm and Blain Hanley all combined to throw the no-hitter. Payton Hanly started the game for the Cruisers and went two innings, giving up one run on no hits, walking two and striking out four. Meyer took over in the third and pitched two innings, giving up no runs and striking out two Sentinel batters. Storm came in to pitch the fifth inning before giving way to Blain Hanly in the sixth to pitch the final two innings. He struck out five of the seven batters he faced.

Jakob Lucht had two hits for the Cruisers, Dally Curtis hit a double and Blain Hanly drove in three runs.

"It was a fun evening for all involved," head coach Mike Moeller said. "After so much craziness the past two years, it was so great to see so many from our community come out and enjoy an evening together watching baseball. Our kids really played well. All our pitchers did a fantastic job, and we played excellent defense, and that was the difference in the game. I have always felt that part of a high school coach's job is one of a memory-maker for our students, and Friday night was one of those events that all our players will remember and talk about for years to come.”

After playing games against Lakes and Tenino earlier in the week, the Cruisers will end the week hosting the Tenino Beavers in the final game of their three-game set. The first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.