Story and photo by Doug Petrowski
Mountlake Terrace’s Daniel Theis ripped an RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Hawks a one-run lead, then struck out two and coaxed a pop-out from Stanwood hitters in the seven to pick up the save in a 6-5 Terrace victory over the Spartans on Wednesday.
Even Hawk coach Andrew Watters was impressed with the late-inning heroics of Theis. “What a clutch day for Dan today,” he said. The game-winning hit came directly after a failed suicide squeeze attempt by the Hawks when Jordan Yoshida couldn’t score from third base on a bunt by Dominic DeMiero.
“Even when we had a close play there at home and couldn’t get that run in, we were able to get a great at-bat right after that,” Watters added. “As a coach, in a way they’re picking me up when they do things like that.”
The win lifted the Hawk record to 3-1. “We’re early in the season; we’re just trying to improve here,” Watters said. “That’s a big win, though. It’s our first conference win of the year. I’m just happy our kids showed poise today.”
After jumping to a 3-0 lead, Terrace was tested by falling behind 5-3 after four innings. The Hawks picked up two runs to tie in the fifth, then the winning run in the sixth. The late inning comeback, plus the close win the night before over Edmonds-Woodway, pleased Watters.
“It’s a good thing to be winning close games because sometimes that’s a thing teams can struggle with. Our veteran kids on the team are keeping cool heads with our younger kids, and it’s working. We’re making plays at the end of these games to win.”
The Hawks have one more game scheduled this week, a 4 p.m. road match-up with Oak Harbor on Friday.
SHS 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 5 9 1
MTHS 3 0 0 0 2 1 X 6 9 0
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