North Thurston sophomore Jack Bowser delivered a two-out RBI double in the 10th inning to put the Rams ahead for good 5-4 at Bellarmine Tuesday to clinch their ninth consecutive victory.
The Rams’ lone extra-base hit ended a marathon of a game that saw over 300 pitches thrown.
With two outs in the first inning, Jordan Dircks singled home the first run, but in a crucial moment, Kole French was out at home.
Zach Albright made quick work of the Bellarmine offense for the first three innings, twirling 1-2-3 frames in both the first and third innings and worked out of a jam in the second. After David Perez sacrificed home French in the fourth, Bellarmine got on the board in the fourth with a sacrifice of its own.
In the sixth, Dircks picked up his second RBI with a groundout, scoring French. Wyatt Albertson delivered a two-out RBI single to make it 4-1 Rams in the sixth. But the Lions responded in the bottom of the sixth, scoring three runs to tie the game.
Bellarmine starter Joshua Morales struck out the side in the top of the seventh, and Grady Wright worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the seventh to send the game to extras. North Thurston put two runners on with one out in the eighth but couldn’t score, and Bellarmine had the same exact fate in the bottom half of the frame.
In the ninth, North Thurston loaded the bases, but French couldn’t cash in, lining out to end the inning. Bellarmine stranded two runners in the bottom of the ninth.
Once again, the Rams had a prime opportunity to take the lead in the 10th, as Dircks singled and Albertson walked with two outs. Bowser, on the first pitch he saw, lined a double to left field to score Dircks and give North Thurston a 5-4 lead.
“Jack is one of the most improved players in our program,” North Thurston head coach Joe Meggs said of Bowser. “He has put in a lot of time over the last year to make himself a better player. He was ready to hit in a big spot and took a great at bat.”
Ethan Shaefer entered in the bottom of the 10th inning and slammed the door, striking out the side on just 13 pitches. All three Lions batters looked at strike three.
“Our pitchers did a great job for us. We found a way to win a tight game against a good team, and I give our kids credit for playing hard and sticking together,” Meggs said.
North Thurston (13-5, 10-4 Puget Sound League) is comfortably in second place in the PSL Nisqually Division with a trip to Mount Tahoma (0-17, 0-14 PSL) scheduled for Wednesday.
