Mules show progress on baseball diamond

Photos by Todd Wilson

The Wahkiakum Mules baseball team suffered a couple more losses this week, bringing their overall record to 0-6, but the coach sees a lot of promise for a young team that is willing to work hard, and "carry the load."

Last Thursday, the Mules lost 19-7 to Adna.

"This was a great game through five innings," Coach Garrett Radcliffe said. "The Mules simply ran out of arms. Zakk Carlson was in the line-up to start pitching for the Mules but was scratched during warm ups due to injury. Dominic Curl took the bump in his place and kept the Mules in it against a strong Adna team. After over 90 pitches he was pulled, but the defense could not help out the bullpen. In all, the Mules had 13 errors, each more costly than the next. Our youth and inexperience was on full display today, however so too was our grit and tenacity."

On Monday, they faced Toledo in a double header, with only the first game counting towards the team's record.

The Mules lost that game 5-4, but Radcliffe is seeing progress.

"It went very well," he said. "Junior Tanner Collupy started on the mound for us and went four strong innings, striking out one and only giving up one walk. Junior Dominic Curl followed on the mound with two solid innings in relief, racking up three strikeouts and no walks."

"While our defense has certainly improved over the course of the season; it was again our downfall for this game."

Curl kept the Mules in the game offensively, going 2-4 with four stolen bases, the coach said. He faced 13 pitches in his at bat in the bottom of the seventh, and stole the next two bases to get to third, where he got stuck as the tying run on third.

Radcliffe said the second game of the day was much the same.

"We hung in there for the beginning of the game, playing a lot of alternate players and getting guys much needed reps during competition," Coach Radcliffe said. "The final score of this game was 13-4 with the game being called for darkness while we had the bases loaded and one out."

"Regardless," he added, "these boys never quit. We don't care what odds are stacked against us or what the score is, we just pack up and carry the load."

The Mules head to the Regional Sports Complex in Lacey to take on Rainier on Thursday and host Naselle on Friday at 4 p.m.

Next week is spring break. Games will resume on April 11.