Sunday, Aug. 17, 2008

UPDATE: Richland grad Stumetz in stopper role for wood-bat league finale

By Eric Degerman, sportstricities.com

The Wenatchee AppleSox face an elimination game Monday night in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League championship series -- an eight-team, wood bat circuit.

And the AppleSox hope Richland grad Jeremy Stumetz, their scheduled starting pitcher, will be their stopper in Corvallis.

Columbia Basin College product Steve Ames pitched Wenatchee to a 5-1 lead in Game 1 on Saturday at Paul Thomas Stadium over visiting the Corvallis Knights.

Ames, CBC’s ace this past spring, struck out six and allowed no earned runs through five innings before leaving -- and before Corvallis rallied to a 6-4 victory in 11 innings.

It was a bounce-back WCCBL campaign for Ames, who struggled in his final two starts in the NWAACC tournament for CBC. He had a 6-2 record with a 3.24 ERA this season for Wenatchee, the East champ with a 23-19 mark.

Corvallis won the West Division by eight games with a 31-11 record.

Stumetz made six starts for the AppleSox this season and went 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA. Tonight, he'll duel Oregon State's Josh Osich (4-0, 1.54), and the Knights should have a boisterous Beaver crowd on their side for Game 2 in the best-of-3 finale. Osich is one of three OSU Beavers playing for the Knights.

Ames and Stumetz will be teammates again this fall at Gonzaga. Stumetz, 20, completed his sophomore season for the Zags. He worked mostly out of the bullpen for his 37 innings. He made 19 appearances en route to a 3-0 record and 7.30 ERA.

His historic career for the Bombers included the mound victory in the 2005 state title game, all-state honors in 2006 and the all-tournament team at the 2006 Senior American Legion World Series.

UPDATE: Stumetz went all eight innings in a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Corvallis. A three-run double in the first inning by Corvallis' Adam Melker was all the Knights needed to win the title of the fourth-year league. Click here to see the boxscore.