SLIDESHOW: Ballard Beavers blow past West Seattle 7-2 in inter-conference action
SLIDESHOW: Ballard Beavers blow past West Seattle 7-2 in inter-conference action
Ballard's Joe Jacobson attempts a pick off throw to Nelson Cooper in a game against West Seattle on Friday April 20. Ballard won the game 7 -2. CLICK THE IMAGE ABOVE TO SEE MORE
Paul Moseley
Fri, 04/20/2012
by Paul Moseley
The 3A West Seattle Wildcats hosted the 4A Ballard Beavers in an inter-conference game at Hiawatha field Friday, April 20. Ballard entered the game with a 7-6 (5-6 league) record looking to continue the move above .500 after a big 14-2 win over Garfield thursday. West Seattle is hovering in the upper section of the Metro league with an 8-4 (7-4 league) record. Both teams are working hard to stay in the top of their divisions in pursuit of post season play.
In a fast paced game, Ballard kicked it off in the 1st inning with a solo homer by Rory Graf-Brennen. West Seattle blanked in the bottom of the 1st, and both teams practiced defense in the 2nd inning, leaving Ballard up 1-0 after two.
West Seattle fought back in the third, keeping Ballard off the scoreboard and picking off a runner at first. Back on offense, West Seattle got a single from Luke Wiggins and followed a double by Jeff Freeman, putting runners on 2nd and 3rd. Ballard intentionally walked the next batter, loading the bases. West Seattle's Kyle Herard then hit a single driving in 2 runs and West Seattle was up 2-1.
Ballard answered in the 4th. Back to back hits put Frank Airey on 1st and Graf-Brennen on 3rd. Trevor Hansen came in as a pinch runner for Airey and Ballard sent the runners. Graf-Brennen was tagged out at the plate and Hansen progressed to 2nd. West Seattle walked Hellinger, leaving runners on 1st and 2nd. Ballard's Nelson Cooper then smashed a hard grounder to 3rd, loading the bases. With 2 outs, Ballard's Ian Scott stepped up with a hit, bringing home two Ballard runners and making the score 3-2.
Ballard continued their streak in the 5th. With runners on 2nd and third, Steven Weber hit a grounder scoring 2, putting Ballard up 5-2. WS made another try in the 6th , when a one out sacrifice put runners on 1st and 3rd. The next batter hit into another double play to end the inning.
Ballard put up 2 more runs in the 7th including an RBI from a quirky single to third that dead stopped when it hit the bag.
Final Score Ballard 7, West Seattle 2.
