TACOMA — All the North Thurston Rams needed to do was flip a switch.
Once that switch was flipped, nothing else mattered but a win. In time, they knew the opportunity to prove themselves to the rest of the Puget Sound League against a quality Silas team on the grand Cheney Stadium stage on Saturday was too paramount to miss.
Well, emphasis on the “in time.”
The heavyweight bout between North Thurston and Silas was scheduled to start at 3 p.m., but by that time, Emerald Ridge and Stadium were playing in the bottom of the ninth inning. For over a half hour, North Thurston milled about the concourse and the bleachers, some watching the game while others stretched.
At 3:40 p.m., the Jaguars walked off the Tigers in the bottom of the 11th inning.
At 3:44 p.m., North Thurston and Silas took the field for pregame stretches. The head coaches shook hands to complete the lineup card exchange at 4:18 p.m., and the first pitch — an 86 mph fastball by North Thurston’s Ethan Shaefer to Silas’ Anthony Turner — was fired at 4:29 p.m.
By 6:08 p.m., coaches in the Silas dugout were left in utter bewilderment and confusion, begging for the bleeding to stop as North Thurston poured in a 10-run fourth inning. The switch had been flipped.
And at 6:25 p.m., a statement was made.
North Thurston pounded Silas 16-5 in five innings, scoring 14 unanswered runs to come from behind and take down one of the top teams in the PSL. The Rams’ 16 runs were the most Silas has allowed in a game in over two years.
“The Rams are here, and they’re ready to play,” North Thurston senior David Perez stated.
Five minutes after the first pitch of the game, Silas already held a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Landon Smith ripped an RBI triple to right field, and the lead doubled one minute later as Max Yoder’s single scored Smith.
North Thurston quickly flushed the inning and went to work offensively in the bottom half of the frame. Zach Albright and Ethan Shaefer immediately found themselves in scoring position after Albright walked and Shaefer reached second base on an error.
As he has done so effectively all season, Kole French sacrificed to score Albright. It wasn’t the flashy result French wanted on a hard-hit ball to left field, but he could settle for a run thanks to a newfound aggression at the plate.
“A couple of my coaches were telling me that I’ve been a little bit hesitant at the plate. I looked at myself in the mirror and realized that I’ve got to be aggressive at the plate,” he said. “I got a first-pitch fastball in the first inning and smacked one to left. I hit that ball really hard. It sucks that it didn’t get down, but it got us a run.”
Shaefer ended up scoring the second run that French wished he delivered on a passed ball, tying the game at 2-2. After a poor first inning defensively, the response in the bottom half of the frame was just what the doctor ordered for North Thurston.
“We didn’t play great defense early on. There were a couple of plays we should have made, but it was big for us to answer offensively,” North Thurston head coach Joe Meggs said. “It was good for the momentum to kind of calm everybody down.”
Silas strung together a pair of hits and took the lead in the top of the second before smacking three hits, two to produce runs, in the third inning to jump ahead 5-2.
Shaefer, leading off the bottom of the third, squared up a bunt on the first pitch of the inning and forced an errant throw by Silas pitcher Cade Owen. Shaefer’s aggressive baserunning helped him turn a bunt into a trip to third base, and French got the RBI hit he was looking for on the next at bat to score Shaefer.
French scored on a wild pitch with the bases loaded, and Wyatt Albertson’s sacrifice fly brought home the tying run. Another passed ball allowed an easy path for Grady Wright to score the go-ahead run, capping off a four-run third inning.
Shaefer bounced back with a 1-2-3 fourth inning, needing only 10 pitches to send the Rams bats back out onto the field.
It took quite some time for them to come off of the field.
Silas reliever Joey Schilling struck out his first batter to bring up the top of the lineup. What followed was death by a thousand cuts. Albright and Shaefer both singled, and French walked to load the bases. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Perez blasted a double to left field, scoring three runs and putting the Rams ahead by four.
“That was kind of a knockout blow,” Meggs said.
Perez watched the previous at bats closely and expected a fastball early in his at bat. He got exactly what he was looking for.
“It was right where I wanted it, and I got out in front and made a good swing on it,” Perez said.
Except North Thurston kept punching. Two more runners joined Perez on the bases, and Albertson registered his second sac fly of the day to score Perez. The next six Rams reached base on three hits and three walks to reach 10 runs in the inning and 16 for the game.
Shaefer worked his second straight 1-2-3 inning to close it out in the fifth. He struck out six batters while allowing four runs, two of which were earned, on five hits and just one walk.
“He battles. He’s really good mentally. He likes to close himself off from the world and not let things affect him on the mound,” Perez said of Shaefer.
During the long delay to start the afternoon, North Thurston only seemed to brew with conviction and purpose. Players watched the Emerald Ridge-Stadium game intently to keep their minds sharp, and the coaches made sure they were locked in as their delayed start grew longer.
“That’s something we haven’t had to do a whole lot. We talked to them as much as we could and kept them up to date on what was going on with the game,” Meggs said. “They were excited from the moment they walked in, so it wasn’t too difficult. They were anxious to get out on the field, and they did a good job once the [first] game ended of flipping the switch and getting ready to play.”
North Thurston (12-5, 9-4 Puget Sound League) is in firm control of second place in the PSL Nisqually Division with three league games remaining. The Rams will visit Bellarmine (8-7, 8-5 PSL) Tuesday, April 28 and Mount Tahoma (0-16, 0-13 PSL) Wednesday, April 29.
