Southridge bats go quiet, Gig Harbor wins 3A title game 5-1

Unable to get much going against 6-foot-6 pitcher Patrick Fredrickson, or figure out a way to quell the Gig Harbor bats, the Southridge High School baseball team suffered its first state championship game loss Saturday at Safeco Field, falling to the Tides 5-1.

It was the second state title for Gig Harbor, with the first coming in 1997.

For the Suns (23-5), it was a disappointing end to a spectacular season that featured a couple heartbreaking losses and some clutch comebacks and performances. It was also their second-best finish in program history.

“You know, you get to the game, and you’re proud of being here,” Southridge coach Tim Sanders said. “Kids’ effort has been absolutely phenomenal, has been all year. Show up every day, work their butts off, great kids, great ambassadors for the school.

“And it hurts, and it should hurt.”

Added junior Jake Harvey: “It hurts your heart, because you got here. Everybody wants to win a state championship. That’s what you play for. To lose it, it’s alright, but it hurts.”

Fredrickson, a University of Minnesota commit that has a fastball nearing 90 mph, was surgical after allowing a run in the first inning. The right-hander scattered five hits — few of which left the infield — and gave up just the one run through 6 1/3 innings.

“Obviously he has a really good arm, good stuff and he had it working today,” senior Mason Martin said. “But I think we just didn’t perform in the clutch like we needed to, and they did. I think that’s why they won that game.”

And he got plenty of support on the offensive end as the Tides tagged Mid-Columbia Conference Pitcher of the Year Wyatt Hull with four runs — two earned — through 3+ innings, and reliever Mason Perez with another.

“It came down to not throwing it down in the zone,” Hull said. “You see what happens when you throw the ball up, they hit it. They’re a good team, have good batters. It really just came down to not locating pitches down.”

Martin, who got the final two outs in Southridge’s 5-4 semifinal win over Mercer Island, closed out the last seven outs in this one, allowing just one hit and recording all three of the Suns’ strikeouts.

For the second straight day, Jake Harvey got the Suns off to a quick start, this time by blasting a leadoff triple, then later scoring on a grounder by Lane Hailey for an early 1-0 lead. Harvey finished the day 2-for-4 and made a nifty diving catch at shortstop in the third inning.

“I was hunting fastball, and when he threw me that fastball, I knew I was going to hit it hard,” Harvey said.

But the Tides (20-3-2), free swinging as ever, answered quickly, leading off the bottom of the second with singles by Jordan Haworth and Cameron Brooks. Both came around to score to give Gig Harbor a 2-1 lead.

Hull was chased before recording an out in the fourth because of an error and a walk to lead off the frame. With Mason Perez on the hill, the Tides loaded the bases, Tanner Hardy recorded an RBI by getting hit with a pitch, then Cameron MacIntosh — who went 3-for-3 — dealt the killing blow with a two-run single up the middle to make it 5-1.

Fredrickson walked Casey Proctor — the Suns No. 8 hitter — and reliever Logan Gerling put Noah Weber on to lead off the seventh. But the on-deck circle was the closest the tying run would ever get for the Suns, as Gerling rallied to set down the top of the lineup in order.

“You get to the end of this game, and the heart and soul and everything is there,” Sanders said. “But at the end, you saw what happened. We got guys on base, it’s never over for us, we keep grinding and keep on doing it. I fully expected at the end of that ballgame to scratch some runs across and make ‘em pucker up and find a way to do it. And everybody in that dugout felt the same.

“You get here, and baseball’s a tough game. Sometimes it’s mean. We felt like we had all the right matchups, like we had all the right guys going. But sometimes when you get there, it’s just not bouncing your way, and that’s kind of what it boiled down to.”

This story was originally published May 27, 2017 at 10:26 PM with the headline "Southridge bats go quiet, Gig Harbor wins 3A title game 5-1."