After suffering a surprising loss in the first game of a doubleheader, the Ocosta Wildcats got a walk-off base hit from Colby Scheuber in extra innings to earn a split with Pe Ell-Willapa Valley on Saturday at Pe Ell High School.

PWV 4, Ocosta 3

Staked to an early lead and with their ace on the mound, the Ocosta Wildcats were in great shape to take the first game of a doubleheader against PWV on Saturday.

But the Titans had other plans.

PWV battled back from a 3-0 deficit, scoring a pair of runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, to earn a 4-3 victory in Game 1.

Ocosta (6-1 overall, 5-1 Pacific 2B) jumped on PWV starter Hunter Hoke early, loading the bases in the top of the first inning after PWV surrendered two errors and Hoke hit Cole Hatton with a pitch.

Ocosta’s Colby Scheuber made PWV pay, smacking a double to left field to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead. Kobe Beck would come home on a dropped third strike one batter later to extend Ocosta’s lead to 3-0.

Hatton, who started on the bump for Ocosta, cruised through the first three innings, holding the PWV offense hitless through the first nine outs. The only PWV player to reach base in the first three frames was Frank Roonsburg, who was safe after an error in the first inning.

But Hoke settled in to shut down Ocosta the rest of the way, giving up just three hits and no earned runs in his seven innings pitched, allowing PWV (2-3, 2-2) to mount a comeback.

The Titans finally broke through against Hatton in the fourth inning. Senior Donny Ward led off the frame with a single for PWV’s first hit of the game. The Titans then loaded the bases on an error and a walk, bringing catcher Kollin Jurek to the plate. Jurek drove the first pitch he saw to center field, chasing Ward and Roonsburg home with a double.

Hatton then struck out the side to preserve Ocosta’s 3-2 lead.

But in the bottom of the fifth inning, PWV would strike again when Luke Gerow drove a Hatton pitch to center for a two-out double, scoring Harley Figueroa and Roonsburg to give PWV the 4-3 lead.

That was all Hoke would need, as he would set down five of Ocosta’s final six batters, inducing a Carlos Martinez double play to end the game.

Ocosta 300 000 0 — 3 3 2

PWV 000 220 x — 4 6 3

WP — Hoke (7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 4 K, BB); LP — Hatton (6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 11 K, BB)

Top Players: PWV — Ward (2-3, 2 R); Jurek (1-3, 2B, 2 RBI); Gerow (1-2, 2B, 2 RBI); Ocosta — Scheuber (1-3, 2B, 2 RBI); Beck (1-3, R)

Ocosta 6, PWV 5 (8 inn.)

Ocosta’s Colby Scheuber (arm raised) celebrates with teammates after driving in the game-winning run with a single in the bottom of the eighth inning in game two of a doubleheader on Saturday in Pe Ell. (Ryan Sparks | Grays Harbor News Group)

Ocosta built a three-run lead before PWV rallied back to tie the game in the seventh inning.

But the Wildcats had the last laugh, earning a 6-5 victory on Colby Scheuber’s walk-off single in extra innings.

Down 2-1 in the bottom of the third inning, Ocosta manufactured three runs on two walks, a hit batter, two fielder’s choice ground balls and an error.

Ocosta extended its lead to 5-2 on Luke Gerow’s RBI fielder’s choice groundout.

But the Titans clawed back in the game with a run in each of the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, tying the game on Gerow’s one-out triple in the seventh.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Wildcats’ Omar Luque led off with a single and advanced to second on a Carlos Martinez walk.

After Harley Figueroa grounded out, Cole Hatton was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Scheuber stepped to the plate and lined the first pitch he saw to right field, scoring Martinez with the game-winning run as Scheuber was mobbed by his teammates along the first-base line.

“I was looking for something over the middle of the plate, and (PWV pitcher Kollin Jurek) just came at it with the first pitch. I knew I’d barrel it up,” Scheuber said of his heroics. “It’s a good feeling to know you helped your team. … It’s probably one of the best feelings in the world.”

The win keeps Ocosta on top of the 2B Pacific League standings, tied with Raymond-South Bend with identical 5-1 league records.

“In the first game, we were very tight and didn’t play very relaxed. We were over anxious at the plate and weren’t seeing many pitches,” Ocosta head coach Mike Allton said. “In the second game, I challenged them to have a little more levity in the dugout, see more pitches and get deeper into counts and good things would happen. I think for the most part, we did that.”

Having split doubleheaders against Ocosta and Raymond-South Bend a week prior, PWV sits in the middle of the pack at 2-2 in league.

“We played great the first game. … We’ve been hitting the ball really well, just right at people. So we knew, sooner or later, we’d have that breakout game,” PWV head coach Kelly Barnum said. “We hit Cole (Hatton) better than I thought we would, but I knew we would hit him. We’ve had kind of a tendency to come out flat in Game 2. We’ve worked on that and I thought we were going to do a little better, but we still came out flat. … We had too many errors in that second game. You are not going to beat a quality team like Ocosta with a bunch of errors. … We just got to clean things up and we’ll be OK.”

PWV 002 011 10 — 5 6 4

Ocosta 103 100 01 — 6 8 4

WP — Kobe Beck (3 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 3 K, 2 BB); LP — Max Smith (0.1 IP, ER, H, BB)

Top Players: Ocosta — Scheuber (2-4, R, 2 RBI); Figueroa (2-4, R); Dylan Mefford (1-3, R); PWV — Gerow (2-3, 3B, 3 RBI); Hoke (1-2, 2B, R, RBI); Roonsburg (1-3, 2B, 2 R, RBI)

Other Scores

Hoquiam 10, Bremerton 7

South Bend 11, North Beach 1

South Bend 13, North Beach 2