The script couldn’t have been drawn up any better Saturday afternoon for the Kentlake High baseball team at Kent Memorial Park.
Righthander Zack Wright served up a gem on the mound while Bobby Joe Tannehill provided enough offense for two teams as Kentlake blasted Curtis 13-0 in a South Puget Sound League seeding game.
Wright allowed just two hits and struck out eight in six innings of scoreless work to pick up the win. The switch-hitting Tannehill went 2-for-4 with a two-RBI double in the first inning and a three-run homer well over the right-field fence in the seventh to cap the victory.
With the win, the Falcons (12-6) earned the fifth seed to the district tournament and, as of press time, will play a yet to be determined opponent at 2 p.m. on Saturday at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma.
“I don’t know if you could have (scripted it any better) or not,” said Kentlake coach Jason Evans. “They came out firing on all cylinders.”
Kentlake’s first inning proved Evans’ point. Andy Enders reached on an error to open the game, setting the stage for Kentlake’s offensive eruption. Brandon Cinkovich followed with a double down the left-field line. Tannehill then doubled in the same place, scoring Enders and Cinkovich. Kentlake’s Miles Nagel continued the rally, driving home Tannehill was a single up the middle.
Two batters later, Doug Christie doubled to right center, scoring Nagel and giving Kentlake a 4-0 lead before Curtis even swung the bat.
After Enders reached on the error, Kentlake followed with five consecutive hits and chased Curtis pitcher Jesse James from the game.
It didn’t take long for Wright to show he had it going on the mound just as well as the Falcons had it going on the plate. The junior righthander struck out five batters in the first two innings and was in command throughout.
“He was just on,” Evans said of Wright. “That’s the Zack Wright we remember from last year.”
Only two Curtis baserunners advanced past second base during Wright’s six innings.
After scoring the four first-inning runs, Kentlake added three more in the second without registering a single hit as Curtis committed three errors during the frame. Kentlake added two more runs in the fifth inning, when Cinkovich was hit with the bases loaded. Tannehill added a bases-loaded walk.
Tannehill, however, put the exclamation point on the game in the seventh, blasting a three-run homer roughly 60 feet over the right-field fence.
“When that went off the bat, all you were wondering was how far it was going to go,” Evans said.
• Kentwood 6, Emerald Ridge 3: Taylor White went 2-for-2 with a key two-run single in the sixth, Bryant VanEngelenburg added two hits and Alexander Lee delivered a strong performance on the mound, helping the Conquerors (16-3) beat Emerald Ridge to earn the SPSL’s No. 3 seed to the district tournament. Lee went allowed scattered eight hits, walked two, struck out five and allowed just one earned run in the win.
Kentwood will play Olympia, the Narrows League No. 1 seed, at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Heidelberg Park in a loser-out game.
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