Kai Halstead’s two-homer game paces Puyallup past Olympia for regular season sweep
Puyallup High School catcher Kai Halstead might as well have kept the gold viking helmet on his head all game. After smashing a solo home run into left center field in the first inning of Puyallup’s 4A SPSL road baseball game against Olympia on Wednesday afternoon, he was greeted at home plate by his Vikings’ teammates, who placed the horn-adorned helmet on his head — a relatively new Puyallup tradition for players who hit home runs.
Halstead came to the plate again in the fifth inning with the Vikings trailing the Bears, 2-1. With a pair of runners on base, Halstead worked a 2-2 count and sat on the changeup, sending a moonshot just over the left field fence for a three-run home run, giving Puyallup the lead for good. Puyallup went on to win, 6-2, sweeping the two-game regular season series with Olympia this spring.
“I know as a catcher, I know the pitches,” said Halstead, a Stanford commit. “I know what pitchers like to work, catchers like to work. I was sitting 2-2, after getting a fast ball, I was sitting offspeed and saw the changeup early, tracked it down and caught barrel.”
It looked like the Olympia left fielder might be able to get to the ball before it carried just over the fence. Halstead, though, had no doubt.
“I bat flipped it to the side,” he said, smiling. “I knew it was getting out, yeah.”
That’s the type of aggressiveness Puyallup coach Marc Wiese likes to see from his power-hitting catcher.
“Kai’s our guy and it was good for him to step up like that,” Wiese said. “We want him really aggressive early on.”
Halstead finished the day 3-for-4 at the plate with the two home runs, driving in four of Puyallup’s six runs. Puyallup pitcher Hunter Grasser pitched an effective five innings against a good Olympia lineup, allowing two runs on four hits, walking two and striking out four.
Getting ahead in counts, trying to throw them off with the offspeed every once in a while but just moving around the zone as much as I possibly can,” Grasser said.
While Wiese was quick to downplay the rivalry aspect of the game, it was clear beating Olympia twice this season meant something to Puyallup’s players. The Bears, after all, beat the Vikings in last year’s 4A state championship game in Pasco, winning on an unforgettable put out at home on a missile throw from right fielder Taber Fast, now a freshman at Texas Tech. In total, Olympia and Puyallup met four times last season, with the Bears coming out on top in three of the contests, including the title game.
“It’s a big rivalry,” Halstead said. “We don’t like each other and we all know it. … I just really wanted to get at Olympia today. I wanted to be fierce at the plate, do big things and luckily we did big things today.”
Puyallup sophomore Mason Pike, an Oregon State commit, pitched in relief to close the game in the sixth and seventh innings. Olympia starting pitcher Lincoln Berg pitched five innings for the Bears, giving up four runs. Puyallup’s Pike had a three-hit game, while left fielder Tristan Ringrose and first baseman Jackson Copeland both had two hits apiece.
This story was originally published April 13, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
