The Saturday night nonleague baseball game between the Peninsula Oilers and Everett (Washington) Merchants presented Coral Seymour Memorial Park fans with a quick game and exciting ending.
It just wasn’t the ending the fans wanted.
The Merchants picked up the victory by throwing out the tying run at the plate for the final out of the game.
The Oilers, who dropped to 5-5 overall with the loss, had a hard time getting much going against Merchants starter Cody Culp and entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 2-0.
But the pot soon started to boil.
James Fowlkes led off with a single and stole second before Bennett Oliver flew to right field for the first out.
Brent Diaz then grounded out as Fowlkes advanced to third with two outs.
Jimmy Galusky was the tying run at the plate, and he got on board on a single that also scored Fowlkes and cut the deficit to 2-1.
Lukas Hermanson kept the rally going when he had an infield single that put Galusky at second.
Alex Seifert then amped up the drama with a single through the middle, but Galusky was cut down at the plate by center fielder Jaykob Sells.
Sells had been playing extremely shallow all game, and it paid off for him there.
“It looked like the guy was throwing from deep shortstop right behind second base,” Galusky told 1140 AM in an interview after the game.
Culp ended up throwing 125 pitches, going all nine innings and giving up eight hits while walking two and striking out three.
The great throw by Sells made a hard-luck loser out of Oilers starter Cameron Stanton. Stanton pitched seven innings, giving up four hits and two earned runs while walking three and striking out one.
Oilers reliever Cory Abbott pitched two scoreless and hitless innings.
The Merchants got their runs in the first, when Mark Medalia singled with two outs to score Ryan Sells, and in the third, when Ryan Sells hit a sacrifice fly to score John Doering.
Jordan Washam and Galusky each had two hits for the Oilers.
The Oilers continue their series with the Merchants today at 2 p.m. at Coral Seymour Memorial Park.
Saturday
Merchants 2, Oilers 1
Mchnts AB R H BI Oilers AB R H BI
John dh 4 1 1 0 Wshm 2b 4 0 2 0
Ty rf 3 0 0 0 Bke 3b 3 0 0 0
Ryan lf 2 1 1 1 Ruhm rf 4 0 0 0
Mark c 3 0 1 1 Flks cf 4 1 1 0
Jykb cf 3 0 0 0 Olvr 1b 3 0 0 0
Jake 1b 4 0 1 0 Diaz c 4 0 1 0
Nick 2b 2 0 0 0 Gsky ss 4 0 2 1
Ryan ss 2 0 0 0 Hmsn dh 4 0 1 0
Matt 3b 3 0 0 0 Sfrt lf 4 0 1 0
Totals 26 2 4 2 Totals 34 1 8 1
Everett 101 000 000 —2
Peninsula 000 000 001 —1
S — Ty, Mark. SB — Washam, Boeke, Fowlkes. E — Ryan, Matt. LOB — Merchants 4, Oilers 8. DP — Merchants 2, Oilers 2.
IP H R ER BB SO
Merchants
Cody, W 9 8 1 1 2 3
Oilers
Stanton, L 7 4 2 2 3 1
Abbott 2 0 0 0 1 1
