Three Cruiser pitchers combine for no-hitter last week

After dropping its season opener the previous week to the Fife Trojans, the Eatonville Cruiser baseball team bounced back in a major way. Three Cruiser pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter and defeat the Washington Patriots 18-1 in a mercy-rule shortened five-inning game, March 16.

Sophomore Riley Storm got the start on the mound for the Cruisers and was credited with the win.

Because it is so early in the season, coach Mike Moeller only allowed Storm to work two innings. In those two innings, he struck out five and walked one batter.

Skylar Sarpy came in from the bullpen in relief and threw two innings as well. He struck out three Patriot batters.

Jakob Lucht pitched the final inning and gave up one run on no hits and a strikeout.

At the plate, the Cruiser offense exploded for 18 runs on 14 hits. Storm went 3-3 with a double, scoring three runs and driving in two. Lucht collected two hits and drove in one run while scoring once himself. Ashton Meyer hit a double to pick up a couple of RBIs on the day, and David Ausmus drove in three runs.

Riding high from that win, the Cruisers finished the week hosting their longtime rivals, the Orting Cardinals.

Eatonville got out to a quick start in the first inning and took the lead 3-0 off a Payton Hanly RBI groundout that scored Brandon Storm. Blain Hanly scored on a wild pitch, and Riley Storm drove in Ashton Meyer on a single to third base.

The score remained 3-0 until the top of the fifth inning when the Orting bats woke up and erupted for 10 runs in the inning to take a 10-3 lead.

The Cruisers got one run back in the bottom half of the fifth when Lucht swiped home on a wild pitch to close the gap to 10-4.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Cardinals tacked on five more runs, while the Cruisers put three more on the scoreboard to trail 15-7.

Orting scored two more runs in the top half of the seventh and blanked the Cruisers in the bottom half to take the 17-7 victory and drop the Cruisers' record to 1-2 on the season.

The Cruisers will host the Enumclaw Hornets at 4 p.m. Friday.