Losses end baseball playoff hopes

Two losses to Nooksack Valley this week ended any hope South Whidbey High school had of going to playoffs.

On Monday, the Falcons fell 11-8 in a road game with the Pioneers. They came home Tuesday to lose a tighter contest 6-2 to the same team.

Summary:

In the final North Cascade Conference game of the season, the Falcons got outstanding pitching and shut-out ball for the first 5 innings from sophomore Stefan Kolbo, but that alone was not enough to win. Three South Whidbey errors in the seventh gave Nooksack a four-run inning, the margin of victory.

On the day, Kolbo gave up just two earned runs.

The news was not good at the plate. Senior Josh Coleman had his 9-for-9, three-game hitting streak broken in his first at bat when he struck out. He ends the season with a .465 average.

The Falcons' only runs came one at a time. Eric Flister led off with a walk and scored on an RBI single by Dane Guetlin. In the fifth inning, Conley White slapped out a one out single, then was moved around by a Michael Lodell single. White then scored on a passed ball.

Guetlin was the only Falcon with more than one hit on the day, going 2-for-4.

The day before, costly errors in the third inning boosted six Nooksack hits to doom the Falcons.

Though the team had a chance with reliever Logan Hanna shutting the Pioneers down in the final three, it was not to be.

Offensively, Coleman was 2-for-2 his fourth home run in three games. Sophomore Guetlin also had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-5, with a single, double, and his first homerun of the season.

Coleman and Guetlin hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning as the Falcons tried to make a comeback.

The Falcons did get the tying run on base in the seventh inning, but were unable to even the score before the last out.

South Whidbey finishes the season 5-11 in North Cascades play and 7-13 overall.

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