Quincy pounds Naches at the plate
Quincy's Gerald Moore tries to beat out a throw to Naches' first baseman Drew Dellinger in the bottom of the third inning. Moore was called safe, but in the webbing of Dellinger's glove lies the ball on the throw from Chris Reese.
Stormy Baughman hits a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth
Quincy came into the game ranked No. 6 by the Seattle Times and Naches ranked No. 4, but it was the Jacks who came up on top 7-4 against the Rangers.
Martin Aguirre led the Quincy attack from the mound with five innings pitched, five strike outs, four hits and allowed two runs in the game. Stormy Baughman highlighted the game with a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth inning to right field.
"I thought we started out really strong," head coach for Quincy Pat McGuirre said. "Our defense was sensational and has to be top in the league."
The left fielder made a running grab with a shot to the left-center field gap to end a two run inning for Naches in the top of the sixth and the center fielder for Quincy robbed Brandon Flory of a double with a diving catch at the start of the seventh inning.
The offense for the Jacks, led by Dustin Petersen, who went 1-for-4 with three RBIs in the game, put up seven runs against the No. 4 Rangers in the first four innings of the game. Naches tacked on four runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but Zack Aguirre shut down the seventh for the Jacks to pick up the save.
"He is coming in and closing and throwing strikes and that is the most important thing," McGuirre said about his closer. "He can throw a curve ball, knuckle ball or offspeed ball for a strike each time."
After a 1-2-3 inning for Quincy in the top of the first, the Jacks put pressure on the Rangers defense, forcing an error on a double play attempt that put Scott Yeates on second base with one out. Baughman and Kelly Hodges walked and Petersen put the Jacks on the board with a two-run single.
Petersen grounded into a fielder's choice in the third inning and the Jacks scored off of one of the Rangers' four errors in the game.
"We didn't have a lot of strike outs and with our speed down the line and on bases, it really put pressure on the other team," McGuirre said about the extra outs in the game.
Adam Ottley started the sixth inning with a single to left field, advanced to third base on a throwing error by the Naches catcher and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Yeates.
Baughman followed with the solo home run and Gerald Moore almost went back-to-back with a double off the center field wall.
"It gave us a real spark and after we put a couple runs up in that inning, it really helped everyone else out," McGuirre added about his heavy hitters in the lineup.
Naches rallied from a 7-0 deficit with two runs in the top of the fifth inning. Cam Bogart got hit by a pitch to start the inning, Drew Dellinger moved Bogart to third and scored on a ground out by Matt Weigfl to the Quincy shortstop Moore.
Reese followed with an RBI single before Aguirre recorded a fly out to center field and a strike out to end the inning.
"We had him on a pitch count of 70 pitches and in that last inning I think he was trying to get everyone out with one pitch," McGuirre said. "He wanted to go two more innings and had 16 pitches left and I shouldn't have told him his pitches, I should have just kept it to myself and just yanked him."
Beau Bogart scored in the sixth inning after hitting a double to the right-center field wall and scored on an error by the right fielder who bobbled Matt Clark's single. Dellinger drove in the final run for Naches with a ground out again to Moore.
In the top of the seventh, Zack Aguirre allowed one baserunner after hitting Justin Weller with a pitch and got help form Ottley in center field with a diving catch in the left-center field gap.