The red-hot Capital baseball team secured a two-game sweep of Lakes to start the fourth week of the season, capped off by a 9-7 win in Lakewood Tuesday afternoon.
Capital kicked off another strong day at the plate in the second inning, first with a bases-loaded walk by Peyton Camus, a two-run double by Max Wilson and a groundball by Brooks Barker that forced an error and scored Wilson.
Down 4-0 to start the bottom of the second, Lakes promptly responded with a three-spot, needing only one hit to draw within a run. The Lancers tied the game in the third on a bases-loaded walk.
Capital’s bats cooled off after the second inning but found life again in the fifth. Tanner Barker doubled, and after an intentional walk to Brooks Barker, Max Hanson grounded a single to left field to score Tanner Barker. Brooks Barker scored on a wild pitch, and Isaac Linville followed with an RBI double to center.
Cash VanZandt capped off a four-run fifth via a Cash VanZandt RBI single to bring Linville home. Capital tacked on another run in the top of the seventh, but Lakes pushed the Cougars to the brink in the final frame.
The first three Lancers Hanson faced reached base, and Chris Estep singled to score Lakes’ fifth run. An error on that hit brought the sixth run home. A sacrifice fly made it 9-7 with two outs, and with the bases now clear, Hanson got the final out by way of a swinging strikeout. He finished with seven strikeouts in three innings of relief.
“We were able to put together solid at bats today, and it was a good team win,” Capital head coach Brian Shannon said. “There’s still been times that we aren’t executing to the level that we are capable of, but we haven’t let it snowball, and that’s a credit to our players and their ability to flush it and keep getting after it. Max Hanson came in the last three innings on the mound and pounded the zone like we expected him to do.”
Hanson also went 3 of 4 at the plate with an RBI and two runs scored.
Capital (4-5, 4-3 Puget Sound League) has now won four of its last five games. The Cougars get a break before a two-game set against River Ridge (5-3, 3-3 Puget Sound League) on April 6 and April 7.
