Puget Sound Collegiate League baseball

Lacey Saints 10, Nisqually Silvers 9

After opening up a seven run lead in the first two innings, the Lacey Saints found themselves up 10-5 going into the bottom of the eighth (note: the game went just eight innings). A one out, two run double by Spencer Manjarrez (Oregon State) brought the Nisqually Silvers to within one, 10-9, with men on second and third base. But Derek Voigt (Peru State) struck out the next two batters to secure the win and push the Saints to one full game ahead of the Olympia Athletics for first place in the PSCL.

The Saints opened the game by loading the bases and quickly scored two runs on consecutive fielder’s choices by Devon Ferguson (Centralia College, North Thurston HS) and Dusty Kerns (Bellevue University). In the second inning, the wheels came off the bus for the Silvers and the Saints sent ten batters to the plate and scored five runs on just one hit to take a 7-0 lead.

The Silvers got two runs back in the fourth inning and Zac Smit (Grand View University) drove in one run with a single and Tyler Lundgren (Centralia College) drove in two more in the bottom of the seventh inning to cut the lead to just two runs going into the eighth.

In the eighth, the Silvers got the first two outs easily but issued a walk to Tyler Zwosta (Centralia College) and a single to Mario Sanelli (Saint Martin’s). Ferguson then capped off a 3-for-5, four RBI night with a three run home run that ran the Saints lead back to five runs, 10-5, and proved to be the game winning runs.

Zwosta, Sanelli and Ferguson each scored two runs for the Saints while Kerns had two hits, one run and an RBI. Jacob Landeis (Green River CC) got the win and Voigt picked up the save.

Manjarrez led the Silvers by going 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI and Smit and Lundgren each drove in two runs. Ryan Taylor (Olympic College) and Josh DeVaughn (Olympic College) each scored twice in the one run loss.

With just three regular season games left, the Saints drove their record to 12-6, one game ahead of the Olympia A’s and two games ahead of the Hawks Prairie Cardinals and West Olympia Linx. The top two teams get a first round bye in the PSCL tournament next weekend. The Silvers dropped to 4-14 and have now lost seven straight games.