LACEY — Olympia senior right-handed pitcher Travis Kunkel missed all of last season with a partially torn UCL in his throwing elbow.
Although he returned in time to play summer ball following last season, his first test back in an Olympia Bears uniform was against the reigning District 4 2A champion Tumwater Thunderbirds led by Michigan commit Luke Overbay.
Kunkel passed that test with flying colors.
In three shutout innings of work at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey Saturday afternoon, he retired nine of the 10 batters he faced, allowing only one hit and striking out a pair as Olympia defeated Tumwater 5-2. Kunkel tossed a total of 53 pitches — 37 of which were strikes and seven were swinging strikes — and his teammates came through with a four-run fourth inning.
“They’re a very talented group. No doubt about it,” Olympia head coach Derek Weldon said of Tumwater. “I feel good about the level of baseball that we played.”
A foundation of Olympia’s program, particularly for its pitching staff, is what Weldon calls “ultimate attack mode.” He wants his pitchers to throw strikes and force weak contact. He wants to win the “freebie” battle every game, meaning giving up fewer stolen bases, passed balls, walks, hit batters, runners due to errors, etc. If a team is going to beat Olympia, they’ll have to earn it.
Olympia won the “freebie” battle Saturday, as the Bears did not give up a walk or commit an error, and they hit one batter and allowed three stolen bases. The Bears stole seven bases, walked four times and secured baserunners off of two Tumwater errors.
But the damage was mostly done in the fourth inning. After three scoreless innings to start the game, Olympia played small ball against Overbay, who was on the mound in relief of starter Jimmy Womach. Brayden Cheeka got the rally rolling with a ground ball to the shortstop, putting the jets on to beat the throw to first. Kunkel walked to put two runners on with nobody out.
Following a strikeout and both runners stealing bases to move into scoring position, Connor Hardy bunted on the first pitch back to Overbay, who struggled to field the ball, allowing Cheeka to score from third. The dugout exploded with excitement, and Hardy couldn’t contain his jubilation as he made it to first base.
On the very next pitch, Noah Miller bunted toward Overbay, who threw toward home as Kunkel gunned it toward the plate. The tag from catcher Wyatt Chase was off, and Kunkel scored the second run of the day for Oly.
Weldon and his staff continued to lean on the small-ball mentality, as for the third straight pitch, Olympia bunted back to Overbay. This time, the pitcher threw Aiden Apfel out at first, but the two runners advanced into scoring position. Jaden Baisch came around to score on a passed ball, and Miller touched home on a wild pitch to give Olympia a 4-0 lead.
“That’s just who we are. We have a saying that pressure bursts pipes. In our short game, we’re not trying to give up outs. We’re trying to create big innings through our bunt game,” Weldon said.
Kunkel exited after the third inning and was replaced by junior pitcher Peyton Crass in what was an impressive season debut and return to prep competition for the right-hander.
“It was awesome. It was super great to come out here and just compete again against a really great offense,” Kunkel said. “Our team has so much personality. We have each other’s back, and we fight for each other. It’s great to be out here with these guys.”
Chase singled and scored in the bottom of the fourth, tagging from third as Olympia tried to catch a runner stealing second to put the T-Birds on the board. The Bears added to their lead in the sixth with a two-out rally. Miller singled and stole second, and on a cranked fly ball single to right field by Apfel, Miller raced toward home and avoided the tag by Chase.
Crass worked four masterful innings in relief of Kunkel, striking out four batters and throwing 30 strikes on 42 pitches. After allowing the run in the fourth, he retired six in a row. In the sixth inning, Olympia turned a double play before Liam Gustafson cranked a solo home run over the right field wall. On a rough day for the Tumwater offense, Gustafson provided half of the T-Birds hits on a 2-of-3 day.
“He’s always been a pure hitter. He’s aggressive,” Tumwater head coach Lyle Overbay said of Gustafson. “Overall, I just don’t think we had very good at-bats consistently. We didn’t get too many quality at-bats today.”
Olympia (1-0) will return to the Regional Athletic Complex Monday for a road matchup against Timberline, while Tumwater (0-1) will host Steilacoom Tuesday night.
