Cruiser baseball drops season opener, 7-5

Despite coming back from a five-run deficit in the fifth, the Cruisers fell 7-5 to the Fife Trojans in a time-shortened six-inning game last week.

Senior Blain Hanly got the nod for the Cruisers' opening day start.

The Trojans struck first when Connor Nixon drove in two in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead.

Eatonville answered back in the bottom of the first when Hanly doubled to left center field to score Brandon Storm and Jakob Lucht.

With the game tied at 2, the Trojans broke things open in the fourth inning when they took advantage of a couple of hit batters, a walk, a base hit and an error and scored four runs to take a 6-2 lead. They added one more run in the fifth inning to extend their lead to 7-2.

The Cruisers tried and clawed their way back in the game when Daly Curtis drew a bases-loaded walk, and then Skylar Sarpy drove in two more runs with a hard-hit ball to right field to cut the Trojan lead to two at 7-5.

In the final inning, Lucht hit a double that sent the tying run to the plate, but Fife's Braden Bedell got Blain Hanly to ground out to end the game.

Ashton Meyer, who came on in relief in the third inning, was credited with the loss for the Cruisers.

Offensively, Eatonville scored their five runs on five hits and two errors.

Lucht went 2-4 with a single and a double and scored a run. Hanly was 1-2 with a double and was hit by a pitch twice, drove in a run and scored, as well. Sarpy drove in two runs with a single. Payton Hanly went 0-2 with a walk and drove in a run on a ground-out and also scored a run himself. Meyer went 1-3 with a single and a run scored.

The Cruisers look to bounce back when they host the Orting Cardinals in a non-league affair at 4 p.m. Friday.