Loss To TOR Ends Season For WP

PRESCOTT - Waitsburg Prescott ended its promising season Tuesday after a 7-4 loss against Takeo-Oakes­dale Rosalia in a game that almost turned into a Tigers' come-from-behind classic.

"It was a close game," head coach Dustin Snedigar said afterwards. "It was one of those nail biters. But we came up short."

The Nighthawks scored in the top of the 1st inning and Dalton Estes answered it with a run of his own in the bottom. But the WP bats went quiet after that, while TOR scored another run in the 2nd and two more in the 3rd to put them ahead 4-1.

"We didn't get the batters going," said Snedigar, who blamed playoff anxiety for some bad WP swings. "We didn't have the hits when we needed them. Baseball is about pressure and we didn't handle it was well as we could have."

Nick Pearson pounded out a run in 4th inning, while Estes scored a second run to make it 4-3. The Tigers seemed poised for a come­back like those it's made in about half the games this season, Snedigar said.

In the 6th, WP had runners on base but didn't score, only to see the gap widen more in the top of the 7th when TOR scored 3 more runs to outpace the Tigers 7-3. WP scored once more in the bot­tom of the 7th with a double from Riley Stevens, but it wasn't enough.

"We just didn't have enough gas," Snedigar said about the playoff game and the last five games of the season - all losses, including two each against DeSales and Asotin.

The final loss came de­spite some impressive pitch­ing from Talen Larson, who was on the mound the en­tire game and didn't walk anyone, but didn't get the offensive support from his teammates, the coach said.

"They (TOR) had 10 hits, but that's not what hurt us," he said. "We left 10 batters on base. That's what really hurt us."

Still, WP wrapped up the season 12-8 overall and 7-5 in league, ranking fourth go­ing into the playoffs.

"Overall, I felt pretty good about the season," said the coach, who will lose five seniors this year but get six returning starters next year. "They felt they could have done a bit better, but it was a great season. They grew as a group and we look forward to next year."