Someone’s streak was bound to end, and the Mustangs were determined to keep theirs alive.
Coming into Tuesday night’s 4A Kingco baseball showdown between the Redmond Mustangs and Lake Washington Kangaroos, both teams were riding a four-game winning streak, and it was Redmond that delivered the knockout punch to the Kangs as they came through in the bottom of the seventh inning for a thrilling 7-6 walk-off victory.
Mustang starting pitcher Mac Acker gave up four runs in the first inning including a leadoff home run to LW’s Alex Potts, and undeterred, Redmond clawed back to cut the deficit to 4-3 in the third.
Down 6-3 in the bottom of the fifth, the Mustangs yet again came through with the long ball.
Sophomore Dylan Davis blasted his fifth home run of the season on an 0-2 curveball over the left field fence for two runs and then the hot bat of Michael Conforto drove the very next pitch into the trees for back-to-back four-baggers to tie the score.
Zach Abbruzza pitched a scoreless top of the seventh to set up the Mustangs’ heroics.
Dylan Davis led off with a single up the middle, and took second on a Kangaroo balk.
Conforto was intentionally walked, and two batters later junior Chad Hui-Peterson came to the plate with runners on second and third with one out.
Working the count to 2-2, Hui-Peterson flared a ball to right-center just out of the reach of diving LW outfielders to score the winning run.
“I told the players before the game that we were playing a very good team,” said Mustang head coach Dan Pudwill. “The game would be full of energy and excitement as they would really come after us. Fortunately we were able to show great poise on the field and battle back… It was a fun, fun game.”
With the win, the Mustangs improved to 9-2 (12-3 overall) and a tie for first place in the Kingco 4A Crest Division with Skyline.
MUSTANG FASTPITCH CLOBBERS GARFIELD, SKYLINE
Redmond’s offense didn’t hold back during Tuesday’s 19-run outburst against 4A Kingco rival Garfield at Garfield High School.
The Mustangs plated four runs in the first and fourth innings and tallied nine more in the fifth on 13 total hits to win by the 10-run mercy rule, 19-1.
For Redmond, Lauren Nasbeth went 3 for 3 with a single, two doubles and six runs batted in, Lindsay Cristobal had three hits and three RBIs, while Kim Lyle went 2 for 3 and four RBIs.
On Wednesday against the struggling Spartans (2-5, 3-8), starting pitcher Erika Hendron hardly needed to show up after her team build a 13-run cushion even before she set foot on the pitcher’s mound.
Regardless of her early advantage, Hendron still pitched well, striking out 11 of the 23 batters she faced and giving up just one earned run through five innings in the 15-2 rout.
With their pair of wins this week, the Mustangs improved to 4-2 (5-3 overall) and will take on last-place Ballard (1-6, 1-8) next Monday.
OVERLAKE BOYS GO LOW AGAINST CARDINALS
Led by a great round from Overlake senior Alec Pakzad, who shot a one-under-par 33 at Foster Golf Links against Seattle Academy on Tuesday, the Owls defeated the Cardinals 153-182.
Behind Pakzad’s medalist performance, Overlake’s Reid Fredrickson finished second at 37, with Philip Falco right behind him carding a 38.
Seattle Academy’s Bart Eland shot the low round for the Cardinals, a 10-over-par 44.
MUSTANGS SNEAK BY SPARTANS
Redmond, playing at home, jumped out to an early lead over Skyline during Tuesday night’s soccer match between the two 4A Kingco rivals, but in the end Skyline came back with two late goals to make things interesting in the 3-2 Mustang victory.
The hot foot of senior Felipe Barros scored two goals, the first at the 30-minute mark off a feed from Robert Handschin, and an unassisted score 10 minutes into the second half.
Then it was Sean Myers connecting off Jack Smith with ten minutes left for the Mustangs’ third goal of the game.
Redmond scored an own goal for Skyline, and Braxton Griffin scored off an assist from Ben Molyneux-Elliott at 75:00 to cut the deficit to one goal, but Redmond held on for the win.
The win improved the Mustangs to above .500 at 3-2-1 (4-3-2) on the year while the Spartans dropped to 2-4-1 (3-6-2).
GARFIELD TENNIS OVERPOWERS REDMOND
The Bulldogs won four of six singles and two of three doubles matches in Garfield’s 6-3 win over Redmond in 4A Kingco tennis action on Tuesday.
Highlights for Redmond included Kristina Owen, No. 3, beating Carmen Rothwell in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 and Idiana Wang doing the same against Sheroy Tran 6-1, 6-1.
Owen and Wang also teamed up for the team’s only doubles win, an 8-5 victory over Rothwell and Catherine Most.
