Quincy baseball wins two for two against Wahluke

QUINCY — The Quincy Jackrabbits baseball team took a doubleheader from the Wahluke Warriors Saturday, in a match of what both coaches said are young teams with room to learn.

Quincy won the first game 12-0 in five innings and the second 5-0, bringing their season record to 2-2. Quincy coach Seth Longwill said he was very pleased with the performance of starting pitchers Evander Stephens and Ashton Barnes-Keller, along with Caleb Kukes, who pitched in relief in both games.

Longwill said Stephens was having a little arm trouble before the season started, so coaches were counting the number of pitches he threw. 

“He pitched four strong innings, walked one, struck out eight, gave up zero runs,” Longwill said.

Barnes-Keller struck out nine hitters in five innings. Kukes pitched one inning in the first game, striking out the side to finish the game; he struck out seven hitters in the second game.

“Both the (starting pitchers) were fresh — they wanted to keep pitching,” he said.

Longwill said it was a strong outing for the pitchers, one of the team’s strengths in 2024. 

“I think we had three walks on the day total as a team,” he said. “We’re really striving at being efficient with our pitches, getting the most out of our pitch count. So I’m really very, very happy with their performances.”

Wahluke coach Chet Bangs said the starting catcher was injured just before the game, necessitating some lineup changes. That’s complicated by the fact Wahluke dropped baseball for a few years, and the revived team is in its second season of varsity competition. There’s not a lot of experience at some positions, he said.

“We had catchers back there that had never really been exposed to catching,” Bangs said. “With the exception of two players, we really don’t have a lot of players that have pitching experience, either. So it’s a young team.”

He cited substitute catchers Damian Cardenas and Makai Harlow for their play. 

“I think they did exceptionally well behind the plate,” Bangs said. 

The Jacks were aggressive on the base paths, pushing runners into scoring positions. That paid off in the first game with four runs scored on singles after runners had stolen second or third. Longwill said making things happen is a focus for 2024. 

“We want to be aggressive on the bases when we can — you’ve just got to (try to) produce runs,” Longwill said. “Just letting the kids hit home runs is kind of a dying thing with the BBCOR bats. So we move the ball around, we have kids aggressive on the bases.”

Bangs said he was pleased with his team’s defense; the Warriors minimized their errors, which were a problem last season.

“Last year we did a lot of focus on fielding, and it’s paid off this year. We (focused) on fielding because we had a young team — we made a lot of fielding errors last year. Looking at our team this year, I feel like we’re a lot stronger in our fielding, and we made less errors than we have in the past,” Bangs said.

The lineup changes meant some players were at positions they’d never played before, and Bangs said he was pleased with the results.

“Antonio (Valdovinos), he’s never really played third. And because of the injury we had to shift him to third,” Bangs said. “He did an exceptional job at third.”

Fourteen players have turned out for baseball at Wahluke, and the limited numbers mean players are learning multiple positions. 

The Jacks scored two of their five runs in the second game on Wahluke errors, but otherwise, Bangs said, he was happy with the way the Warriors responded.

“Especially in the second game, they didn’t quit,” Bangs said. “It’s easy (after) that first game, get your head down, but they came in and battled.”

Longwill said he was pleased with the way the Jacks worked together, especially at the plate.

“(Quincy’s) five, six and seven batters are sophomores, and they’re kind of feeding off each other, getting big hits, so it was exciting to watch,” Longwill said.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.

    A Wahluke runner dives back to first in Saturday’s road game against Quincy.
  

    Quincy’s Martin Aguila (5) is tagged out at second.
  

    A Wahluke runner is out at first.
  

    Quincy’s Caleb Coduti (1) breaks for second base in the Jacks’ doubleheader sweep of the Wahluke Warriors Saturday.