The Todd Beamer baseball team was excited to get back to league play after a week of out-of-conference games. They were even more excited about the prospect of a showdown with in-city rivals, Decatur, for the league championship.
That excitement turned into a couple of wins and the first league title for the Titans.
“Last week we had some tough games, but they were non-league games,” Titans head coach Jerry Peterson said. “We learned a lot from that and we were ready.”
Beamer took the first game of the series 4-3. After jumping out to a 4-0 lead, they held off a Decatur rally in the fifth inning to keep the lead.
On Tuesday, the Beamer seniors took to their home field one last time and made it a memorable one with a 4-1 win over the Gators.
“Last game for the seniors here and they wanted it bad,” Peterson said. “They worked hard and we’ve been playing really well.”
The Titans once again put up runs quickly as they scored two in the bottom of the first inning on a hit by senior Taylor Davis. Decatur was able to hold off a bigger deficit as they got the final out with two runners left on base.
It wasn’t enough, however, as the Gators had trouble figuring out Beamer senior Andy McBride who was on the mound looking for his first win of the year.
McBride struck out six, his highest total on the year, and allowed only four hits on the day. He also walked two batters.
He took a shutout through six innings, but was unable keep it as a Nathan Adams two-out single in the top of the seventh brought home JV McGruder.
Beamer now sits at 9-2 in league play and 12-5 overall. Decatur falls to 7-4 in league play and 10-7 overall. The Gators are locked into second place for the South Puget Sound League Northwest heading into crossovers.
“Our pitching has been good and offensively we’re doing better,” Peterson said. “We’re a gritty team. We have one more [league] game and we’re excited for the playoffs.”
Beamer and Decatur were scheduled to play again on Thursday.
Decatur will play twice more after that. On Monday they will play at Kentridge at 4 p.m. and on Tuesday they will have their final home game against Kentwood at 4 p.m.
Beamer will play at Kent-Meridian for their final game of the regular season on Monday at 4 p.m.
