Last weekend, Bellevue College and Olympic College split a four game series, each team winning two games. On both Saturday and Sunday, Bellevue lost the first game of the day, before winning the night game.
Saturday’s first game started off with what appeared to be a pitchers’ duel as Bellevue’s Brian Buckham and Olympic’s Jared Vera had a combined shutout.
While Buckham’s shutout lasted until the seventh inning, Vera’s ended in the fourth, when a Brodie McCormack double scored both Lucas Shaw and Kaylor Hasbargen. Following a Mike Stone walk, and McCormick getting caught stealing, an Ian McKay single scored Stone.
In the fifth and sixth innings, neither team could even manage a hit. Going into the seventh, Buckham started to wear down as the first four Olympic batters got a single, scoring a run and getting the bases loaded with nobody out. After that a fly ball to right field scored another run, and one last single scored the final run of the inning, tying it up at 3 – 3.
The Bulldogs were unable to score in the bottom of the seventh inning, and neither team was able to score in the eighth or ninth inning, sending the game into extra innings.
In the top of the tenth two quick singles set up Olympic for what would become the winning run to be walked in.
The night game went quite different, as Bellevue jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first. A Shaw triple, a Keegan Acker single, a Brett Dvorak single, and a Hunter Beaty single scored the five runs.
Following a scoreless second inning, the Bulldogs expanded their lead to seven runs on an Ian Parmley single and a Ryan Shelton sacrifice fly. In the third inning, Beaty stole third, and Parmley also stole both second and third.
In the top of the fourth, TJ Parthemer continued his shutout of Olympic, while in the bottom of the fourth, Bellevue scored yet another run when Michael Robertson stole second, and a wild throw brought him all the way home.
In the fifth inning, Parthemer’s shut out of Olympic ended as two straight singles brought in three runs for Olympic, bringing the score to 8 – 3 in favor of Bellevue.
After Bellevue failed to get anything going in the bottom of the fifth, Olympic brought the game even closer in the top of the sixth. After striking out the first batter, an error against the second started what turned into a two run rally, bringing them within three.
After a shutout bottom of the sixth for Bellevue, and a shutout top of the seventh for Olympic, a sacrifice fly by Beaty brought in Shelton to score, expanding the lead to 9 – 5. The rallies stopped there though, and the game ended without any more runs.
Sunday’s first game wasn’t quite as much of a thriller. It started off with Bellevue drawing blood first by scoring a run in the first inning off a Cody Edwards single. After Olympic managed nothing in the bottom of the first, Keegan Acker tripled in the top of the second to bring in Bellevue’s second run.
Things stayed that way until the bottom of the fourth, when a double and an error led to Olympic scoring two runs. They then scored a third run in the bottom of the fifth, taking a 3 – 2 lead. Bellevue was then unable to mount any kind of comeback, and the game ended at that score.
Looking to once again win the night game, Bellevue one again struck first when a McCormick double brought in Shaw to score.
Following an eventless bottom of the second for Olympic, Bellevue scored two more in the top of the third when both Barnes and Shaw singled to bring in Shelton and Acker.
Olympic finally answered back in the bottom of the third when an error allowed a base runner who eventually scored, bringing the score to 3 – 1.
Bellevue answered back in turn, as Kaylor Hasbargen singled and stole second, before Shelton brought him in with a single.
Shelton then stole second himself, before also being brought in by a single, this time by Brian Barnes.
In the bottom of the fourth, three batters came up for Olympic, and all three made out, ending the inning quickly.
In the bottom of the fifth, however, Bellevue took liberties against Olympic. With the bases loaded, Shelton once again singled, this time bringing in two runs as both Edwards and Stone scored. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, Barnes doubled, bringing in all three bases runners, before he himself scored on a Shaw single.
In the bottom of the fifth, Olympic managed one final run on a batter getting hit by a pitch then scoring on a double. The game ended 11 – 2.