Trojans hammer away on cross-district rivals

“Keep your heads up,” hollered Central Kitsap baseball coach Marc Hansen as his team took to the field for the fourth inning in their game Thursday afternoon against cross-district rivals Olympic. “Let’s go!”

Things weren’t looking to go the Cougars’ way at that moment as the Trojans had already broken open the scoreless game in the third inning with five runs to take the lead.

Sam Weller relieved CK starter Matt Phillips after he struck out and walked the first two batters in the fourth. Weller then got Ray Exum to hit in to a double play to end the inning.

Phillips finished with two strikeouts and four earned runs in 3-1/3 innings of work.

With the momentum going in CK’s favor, Oly starter Jeff Shaw struggled in the fifth, giving up a pair of walks and a single to Derek Rubino to load the bases. A walk to Johnson brought in the Cougars’ first run then Phillips hit a single up the middle to bring in two runs. Shaw struck out Brett Murphy to end the threat.

“Today was a story of our pitchers throwing strikes, keeping us in the game and letting our defense play behind them” OHS coach Nate Andrews said. “The outfielders were in position to make catches and we did the little things that help us win games.

“Then we had some execution (at the plate). There was a squeeze play executed perfectly, a sac bunt executed perfectly for the next guy to come up. My guys just did things right today.”

The Cougars ended up leaving seven runners on base to the Trojans’ five.

The Trojans responded with an sacrifice fly by Adam Winger to drive in Shaw to up the lead to 6-3. Mathew Foss hit a double that started off a four-run sixth for the home team highlighted by Robert Cook’s lumbering 2-RBI triple.

“I’m kinda big so I just motored it out the best I could. I think I had two last year on the JV season,” said Cook, a 6-2, 225-pound junior who also hit a double.

On Monday, CK plays at Bremerton at 3:45 p.m. and Olympic hosts North at 4 p.m.

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