Tahoma baseball comes back from behind again to beat Federal Way in rainy contest
Maybe the rain and hail delay was a good thing for the Tahoma Bears. Trailing 2-0 on the road against 4A NPSL peer Federal Way on Tuesday afternoon, the game was halted in the fourth inning as the conditions worsened.
After the game resumed, Tahoma took advantage of the wet baseball, scoring four runs in the final three innings, thanks in part to three Federal Way errors in the sixth inning. For the second consecutive day against Federal Way, Tahoma overcame a deficit to win the game, 4-2 on Tuesday.
“Just grinding with the rain, making things happen, putting the ball in play, doing the little things that matter because you’re not going to get big hits here, your pitchers aren’t going to be perfect, so just doing the little things, putting balls in play, hustle — all of us hustled really well today,” said Tahoma catcher Carson Ohland, who is considered the top prospect in the state in the 2023 class.
Tahoma left fielder Conrad Henkel reached base in the sixth inning on an error and then became the game-tying run, before blasting an insurance RBI single in the seventh inning.
“We definitely needed a run (in the sixth inning) and it ended up helping,” Henkel said. “They helped us out a little bit but we still made plays when he had to.”
Tahoma starting pitcher Adam Jay pitched four innings for the Bears, giving up a pair of runs. Jackson Walker came on in relief and pitched three shutout innings to close the door, despite the challenging elements.
“Adam did a great job today, I think,” Ohland said. “He pitched really well throughout that rain. It felt like every time we’d go out there, it was raining on us, then they’d come out and it wasn’t raining on them. So Adam did a great job grinding it out, getting new balls when he needed them, getting the dry balls and just grinding through at bats and shut down those hitters.”
Federal Way sophomore pitcher Orlando Young, a UW commit, was steamrolling through Tahoma’s lineup early on, but struggled with his command once the rain started coming down, clearly struggling with the wet baseball. Through four innings, he had held Tahoma’s lineup to two hits and had struck out six batters.
It was the second straight day Tahoma had come from behind to beat Federal Way; the Bears clawed back for a 5-4 home win against the Eagles on Monday.
“That was the first time all year that we had to come back from behind,” Henkel said. “I think it just proved that we can do it. It was just a taste of playoff baseball right there.”
Ohland said he felt it was valuable experience for Tahoma.
“We’ve been on top of most teams this year and we’ve had a pretty easy ride,” he said. “That’s great for us to have that and to learn what it’s like to come from behind and it just shows our team’s grit.”
This story was originally published April 18, 2023 at 10:06 PM.
