LAKE STEVENS — The Marysville juniors had seen this situation before.
Down 12-2 to Stilly Valley in the sixth inning July 7, Marysville’s all-stars weren’t able to comeback this time, losing by that score at Lake Stevens Community Park.
“We were hoping we could do it again,” said Marysville manager Scott Wood. “But it just wasn’t happening this time.”
In the exact position just three days earlier, Marysville rallied for 10 runs in the sixth and seventh innings combined to force an extra frame before eventually losing 17-12 in the District 1 semifinal game.
The most recent loss gave Stilly Valley the district championship.
Things didn’t go to plan for Marysville to start, although it wasn’t on unfamiliar ground, trailing 2-0 in the first inning.
“We’ve been doing this the whole tournament,” said Wood. “We give up runs early and have to come back.”
Marysville had three comeback wins to its credit during the tournament.
Leading off for Stilly Valley, Walker started a two-run rally in the first with a double. He later came around to score on Josh Schempp’s single. Schempp then scored on Kyle Osborn’s single later that inning.
Scoring the eventual game-deciding run was Brandon Smith, who started off a five-run second inning with a walk — one of the five free passes Stilly drew that day.
With the score 8-0 in the fourth inning, Marysville got on the board when on Nicholas Vennetti’s single that scored both Dante Fields and T.J. Rice.
Rice broke up a no-hitter by Walker with a one-out single in the fourth and Fields followed that up with a long double.
“We were hoping to get by (Walker) like we did to their starter the first time we played them, but he did a good job of staying in the game,” said Wood of Stilly Valley’s pitcher, who went 5 2/3.
On the mound for Marysville, Tyler Hust came in and provided solid relief in the four, fifth and sixth innings.
Marysville’s juniors consisted of Chad Mullins, Fields, Hust, Marcus Marier, Isaac Shriver, Cory Davis, Vennetti, Trey Southard, Joe Rosie, Rice, Benjamin Northrop.
