For seven innings Wednesday, Skyview’s Ryan Pitts and Camas’ Riley Sinclair went to war.
A good old-fashioned pitchers’ duel featured 15 combined strikeouts and just 11 hits. Both had season-defining performances. Neither was rewarded with a result, as they left with zeroes on the scoreboard at Propstra Stadium.
Instead, the defense-first game was decided by the little things at the plate: sacrifice bunts, groundouts to move and score runners, drawing walks. After nine innings, Camas did a few more of those to earn a 4-3 decision over Skyview to move atop the 4A GSHL. The two teams meet again Thursday in a matchup that will likely decide the league crown.
“It’s stuff we practice all the time,” Camas coach Stephen Short said. “We didn’t do a very good job of it early on. But in the biggest moments we needed to do it, we had the right guys in the right position to execute. They did a good job of it.”
Camas (12-4, 7-2 4A GSHL) opened the scoring in the eighth inning after Dante Humble was hit by a pitch to leadoff the frame. Tyler Forner sacrifice bunted him over to second base; Jake Blair hit an infield single to push him to third and Grant Heiser grounded out to second base to put the Papermakers up 1-0.
Pitts wasn’t about to have his performance on the hill go to waste, and opened the bottom of the eighth with a triple off the right-field wall before scoring on a passed ball.
He finished 3 for 5 with an RBI to go with a handful of roars as he got out of jams on the hill. His most impressive was a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the seventh.
He picked up two strikeouts — one after falling behind in the count 3-0 — to preserve the 0-0 scoreline.
“He threw as good as you could possibly throw in a game like this,” Skyview coach Seth Johnson said. “He’s the leader of this team, hands down. I think he’s the best player in the league, honestly.”
Camas again took the lead in the ninth, as Shane Jamison singled to center to make it 2-1. Kolby Broadbent hit an RBI sacrifice bunt and Humble’s groundout scored another to give Camas’ Luke Brewer a three-run cushion. He needed all of it.
Skyview’s Cooper Barnum singled up the middle and Pitts followed suit to make it 4-3, before a popout secured the Camas victory over the Storm (13-3, 7-2).
After being pulled with a 1-2 count and two outs in the seventh, Sinclair couldn’t have been happier. The 105-pitch count forced his exit after a brilliant outing, which also included two hits and a pair of walks.
“Just a bunch of adrenaline, league rivals, I just wanted to give it everything I got,” Sinclair said of the night. “I really wanted to finish the game.”
The final meeting between the teams — Camas won the first two — is slated for 4 p.m. at Camas on Thursday.
