Baseball

Wahkiakum’s season ended with a loss to Forks in the first round of the district baseball tournament this weekend, but the Mules didn’t go down without a fight.

“The game was a good one, back and forth throughout,” Coach Garrett Radcliffe said.

According to Radcliffe, the Mules got an early 1-0 lead, but Forks scored three runs to go ahead 3-1. The Mules tied it up, but Forks scored again, making it 5-3. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Tanner Collupy brought in two runs to tie the score at 5-5 and send the game into extra innings, but Forks scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly to outfield, and ended the game 6-5.

“Dominic Curl started on the mound and was great, pitching four innings and striking out eight,” Radcliffe said. “Collupy took the mound after and pitched very well.”

Radcliffe blamed errors and youthfulness for the Mules’ downfall this time around, but he is hopeful for the future.

“We had many freshmen and sophomores going heads up against seniors that have more experience and reps under their belt,” he said. “In two years, the tables will be turned. This loss is heartbreaking, but the growth we've been able to show is incredible. We'll take time to reflect and analyze this loss and then it's right back to getting ready to grow next season. If we're gonna go down, we're gonna go down fighting and that is exactly what these young men did. I've always been of the opinion that if you're gonna lose, at least it's on a walk-off in extra innings.”