Defense Hurts Bulldogs In 6-1 Loss To Knights

On a sunny afternoon in Bellevue, the Newport Knights defeated the Garfield Bulldogs 6-1, led by a strong pitching performance from their starting pitcher, who went the distance only allowing 6 Bulldogs hits. Garfield’s offense was led by Tavish Fenbert, who had 2 hits and reached base in all 3 of his at-bats, scoring the Bulldogs lone run. Chandler Honican also had a good day at the plate, recording 2 hits, going deep into the count in each of his at-bats. Justin Arkills-McLain provided a solid outing on the mound for the Bulldogs, but the defense struggled behind him, running up his pitch count and allowing extra Newport baserunners, which came around to hurt the Bulldogs later. The game was close until the bottom of the 4th when Newport pulled away with 3 runs. The top defensive play was Ben Koerner’s nice catch on a high pop-up behind the dish in foul territory.
Garfield is now 3-6 overall, 2-3 in conference play after the first round of playing its divisional opponents. Starting next week, the teams crossover to play the other Kingco 4A division, with Garfield traveling to Redmond on Monday night and then having a bye on Wednesday while the rest of the conference plays.
The JV team lost 12-8 at home against Newport, coming from behind to make the game interesting at the end. Newport got up early and looked like they had the game put away, but the Bulldogs were able to get the bats going late after falling behind by 10 runs. Luc Carlin went 3 for 4 at the plate with 2 diving plays at second base for the Bulldogs. Jeremy Pilgrim-Stoppel was 3 for 4 with 4 RBI. Garfield JV (2-6, 0-4 in conference) plays a makeup game on the road at Skyline on Saturday and then is at home against Redmond on Monday afternoon.