On Apr. 14, the Central Kitsap Varsity Baseball faced off against Lincoln High School in heavy rain, winning with a final score of 14-2. Despite cold conditions, the first pitch would occur on schedule at 4 PM with CKHS senior and starting Pitcher Jackson Brady taking the mound. 

“The weather was definitely a factor,” Brady said. “I was just trying to throw strikes and make the team [Lincoln] prove that they could hit it [the ball].”

The second batter of the ball game managed to hit a home run off one of Brady’s pitches to put Lincoln ahead early. However, Brady was able to get the next two outs without allowing any more runs to end the top half of the inning.

“Those things are going to happen,” head coach Justin Brien said. “That’s the one hitter in their lineup that could potentially do any damage against us. The fact that nobody was on base and we limited to one in the first inning, I knew that one run wasn’t going to hurt us in this game.”

The bottom of the first inning was slow for CK’s offense. Some momentum was built after junior Catcher Leo Bosh singled down the third base line, but after Center Fielder Tanner Herdman stole second base on a wild pitch, and senior Right Fielder Grant Lin struck out swinging on a full count to end the inning. However, Brady kept Lincoln’s offense under control in the top of the second inning, not allowing any runs.

“I definitely had to take a lot off of pitches,” Brady said. “Couldn’t go max effort, couldn’t throw too many breaking balls. Had to rely on the fastball quite a bit.”

CK’s offense took advantage of multiple fielding errors by Lincoln in the bottom of the second inning drawing several four-pitch walks, and scoring the first run for CK. In the top of the third inning, three batters were up and three batters went down as Brady went on to strike out all three in a row. In the bottom of the third CK got their bats warmed up and scored eight runs to take a 9-1 lead.

“I think the guys took a little bit more [of a] simplistic approach and just tried to put the ball in play,” Brien said. “They didn’t have to hit a home run or hit a double with every single at bat, just try to put the ball in play to advance runners.”

From there CK continued to control the game, despite the wet conditions, and a few walks, Brady would go on to close it out via mercy rule in the fifth inning with a final score of 14-2, as Lincoln was only able to score one more run on the frame.

“A lot of their hitters were late on the fastball,” Brady said. “So I decided just to ride with that. I could get in the zone the most out of any of my pitches.”