In its district opener, Montesano was victimized by a baseball version of Murphy’s Law — and an inspired group of White Salmon’s Bruins.
William Gross pitched a four-hitter and aided his own cause with three RBIs as White Salmon upended the Bulldogs, 7-3, in the opening round of the District IV Class 1A Baseball Tournament at Hoquiam’s Olympic Stadium.
The fourth seed from the Trico League, the Bruins (11-8) completed a Trico sweep of Monday’s games and will visit Castle Rock for a district semifinal Tuesday.
The Evergreen 1A League champion Bulldogs (12-4) will take on league rival Hoquiam in a loser-out contest at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Olympic Stadium.
As Monte coach Mike Osgood was quick to acknowledge, the Bulldogs had difficulties in all three phases of the game on Monday.
Their normally potent bats were silenced by Gross, a soft tosser who kept the Dogs off-balance with a steady diet of off-speed pitches. The White Salmon junior struck out only three (and one of those reached base on a dropped third strike), but walked only one and enticed the Bulldogs to lift a procession of medium-depth fly balls. Ten Bulldog outs came on outfield flies.
Seemingly uncomfortable with the unfamiliar mound, Montesano starting pitcher Austin Peterson struggled with his control from the get-go. He walked three and hit a batter while allowing five runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings.
His defense did Peterson few favors. The Bulldogs were guilty of five errors — all in the first three innings. Those contributed to three unearned runs.
“Fortunately, this year, when one phase of the game has gone bad, the other phases have picked us up,” Osgood reflected. “Today, they were just better than we were.
“We struggled throwing strikes. Obviously, we struggled picking up ground balls and our plate awareness wasn’t the best,” the Monte coach continued.
Montesano’s only lead was exceedingly short-lived.
After White Salmon scored twice in the first inning, Monte answered with three in the second.
Evan Bates reached base on the aforementioned dropped third strike and Kyle Trout drew a two-out walk. Nick Chapman’s solid single to right field scored one run and Carson Klinger’s bloop single to center picked up two more.
The Bruins, however, sandwiched two hits around two errors, a walk and a hit batter in a three-run third that put them ahead to stay.
Davis Koester’s single knocked in one run and a bases-loaded walk to Trenton Howard forced in another, finishing Peterson.
A dropped throw on a potential double-play ball (the Bulldogs argued in vain that the ball was lost on the transfer to the throw) scored Adam Goodwillie with the inning’s final run.
Reliver Chapman pitched effectively until allowing two runs in the sixth. The Bulldogs also shored up their defense the rest of the way.
But Monte could do little against Gross in the final five innings, with only two other runners reaching scoring position.
Dakoyta Reninger was the lone Bulldog with two hits.
W. Salmon 203 002 0 — 7 10 2
Monte 030 000 0 — 3 4 5
Gross and Changar; Peterson, Chapman (3) and Rhoden.
RBI: White Salmon — Gross 3, Howard 2, Koester. Montesano — Klinger 2, Chapman. Two hits: White Salmon — Gross, Webster, Curtis. Montesano — Reninger.
Winning pitcher — Gross (walked one; struck out three). Losing pitcher – Peterson (walked three; struck out none).
