Faced with a second straight "Must Win" situation, Highline mounted a furious late inning rally, overcoming Bonney Lake 10-6 on Saturday. The Pirates fell behind 4-0 in the third and had not even had a base runner up until that point. Senior, Logan Brickell finally broke up the Panther "no-no" with a one out double in the top of the fourth and scored on Senior, Caleb Ramirez' double. Highline added another run in the fifth without any basehits thanks to Senior, Jeff Kemp's squeeze bunt.  At that point, the Bonney Lake starter couldn't find the plate and was removed.  Their reliever struggled too, but Highline had to settle for just the one tally.  The Panthers responded with two runs in the bottom of the fifth to again lead by four runs.  Highline got rolling in the sixth scoring three runs on two walks, an error and Senior, Thomas Farrell's clutch, RBI single to narrow the lead to 6-5.  Reliever, Cole Porter shut Bonney Lake down in the bottom of the sixth setting the stage for a major HHS uprising in the seventh. 

Jonny Locher led off the inning with a full count, walk.  Logan sacrificed him to second.  Another walk to Jacob Wydick brought Senior, Nick Mead to the plate.  A wild pitched careened off the catchers shin pads and rolled to the backstop.  Jonny never hesitated and took off for home where a collision (see photo) with the Panther pitcher took place, which jarred the baseball away and Locher was "safe" with the tying run.  Nick eventually drew another free pass. Caleb Ramirez was hit by a pitch to load the bases  Ryne Phelan, running for Jacob, was forced out at home for the second out setting the stage for sophomore, Erik Anderson.  The Pirates shortstop came "clutch" on a full count, bases clearing triple to the gap in right center giving Highline their first lead of the day.  Erik would then score on a single by Desmond Drew to open a 10-6 lead for Highline going into the bottom of the eventh.  Caleb came on in relief and induced three straight groundouts, including Cole Porter's incredible, diving stab which he threw to firstbase from the seat of his pants.

It was fairly obvious that this years seniors did not want their High School careers to end on this day.  They pretty much willed this team to victory and should be extremely proud of their efforts.

With the win, Highline moves on into the WCD Tournament and a 4:00 game on Tuesday at Heidelberg Field in Tacoma. against the Narrows League #3 seed Capital Cougars.  The complete bracket can be viewed by clicking on the following link.

http://www.wcd3.org/BA_3A_Bracket_11.pdf

More info, including driving directions to Heidelberg, can be vound on the WCD web page

www.wcd3.org/b_ba.htm

Eric Todd was again on hand yesterday and posted some amazing photos of the game which can be viewed at - http://www.etdpi.com/Sports/Highline-Pirate-Baseball/20110507