Welcome to varsity, Ryan Skoubo.
The sophomore pitcher made his starting debut at the varsity level Wednesday, throwing six innings of two-hit ball and striking out eight to lead the Trojans past winless Bremerton 10-2 at Lobe Field at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds.
Skoubo, who has played at the junior varsity level, pitched with a lead the whole way after the Trojans scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and two more in the second to build a 7-0 lead.
The Knights’ only two hits were singles and the lone run scored off Skoubo was unearned.
“I did pretty good,” Skoubo said when asked how he felt about his varsity debut. “Did my job and threw strikes.”
Skoubo’s job wasn’t as easy at it could have been; the Trojans committed four fielding errors, a number coach Nate Andrews said the team must reduce before the regular season ends.
“We made a lot of mistakes,” Andrews said. “We’re not playing very good baseball right now for what we’re capable of playing.”
Andrews said most of the errors were physical mistakes as opposed to mental lapses, but they were errors nonetheless and need to be addressed. The Knights, too, were sloppy in the field, committing six errors.
“We’re to the point where we can’t tell them anymore, it doesn’t matter,” said Andrews of the defensive miscues. “These guys are old enough and mature enough to be told once and make an adjustment.”
The Trojans (8-4 overall, 7-2 league) are averaging between three and four errors a game, Andrews said, which is partially a result of the team’s youth.
“Defense affects your pitching. If you give a team four and five outs, your pitchers aren’t going to be able to get four and five outs without any runs, it’s nearly impossible,” he said. “The good news is most of them are physical mistakes, it’s not like they are mental mistakes. Physical errors are different than a mental error. I don’t mind that, but we still need to clean that up.”
At the plate, the Trojans are hitting as well as any team in the Olympic League. Tuesday, they scored 19 runs against North Mason on 17 hits. With 10 runs against Bremerton Wednesday, they have now scored 10 or more runs five times this season to go with two nine-run performances.
“Offensively, we do have a good lineup, there’s no question,” Andrews said. “I would rather not have to score 11 or 12 runs to win games, we want to be able to score six runs and be in good shape.”
Blake Johnson was 1-for-1 with two stolen bases and Chris Campbell was 2-for-3 with two runs, two stolen bases and two RBI to lead Oly Wednesday.
But hitting and scoring won’t be as effortless today when Oly faces North Kitsap, one of the better pitching teams in the Olympic League. The Trojans will be without Johnson, who was ejected from Wednesday’s game for “malicious conduct” after colliding with Bremerton’s catcher on a play at the plate. By rule, he must sit out the next game.
“We’ll have to deal with that (today),” Andrews said.
While Andrews wasn’t impressed with his team’s play in the field, he acknowledged the season is only half over and there’s time to correct the miscues.
“We just need to clean up the errors and it will all fall into place,” he said. “We’ve just got to clean it up, that’s all.”
Daniel Hall relieved Skoubo, who said after the game the win helped his confidence, in the seventh inning with the game well in hand.
“It’s a big difference, the playing is much harder,” added Skoubo of pitching at the varsity level. “People are hitting the ball harder, the pitcher’s throwing it faster, just more velocity and better plays.”
Notes
Wednesday was Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Awareness Night and Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer threw out the ceremonial first pitch to honor those killed by impaired drivers. An informational table with the car driven by Heather Meadows, a 2003 Central Kitsap High School graduate who was killed by a drunk driver in 2005, was displayed. Each inning of the game was dedicated to a victim of drunk driving.
Bremerton 001 000 1—2 4 3
Olympic 521 011 x—10 11 4
Matt Haynes, Joel Brockman (3) and Troy Miles. Ryan Skoubo, Daniel Hall (7) and Zach Bird. W—Skoubo (1-0). L—Haynes.
Leading hitters—Brem: Miles 2-4 (RBI). Oly: Chris Campbell 2-3 (2R,2RBI,2SB), Elliot Thorson 2-3 (RBI), Tyler Marshall 1-1 (2R), Danny Sedgebeer 1-2 (2b), Blake Johnson 1-1 (2b,2SB).
Central Kitsap
Olympia beat the Cougars 4-1 Wednesday in a battle of Narrows League powers.
Conner Dressback held CK’s high-powered offense to one run on five hits, striking out six and walking one.
Allen Hewey took the loss for CK, despite striking out 11 batters. Josh Winkler led the Cougars (7-4 overall, 6-1 league) at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double and a homer.
Klahowya
The Eagles used a five-run third inning to pull away from North Mason in a 6-3 win at home. KSS pitcher Eric Eley picked up the win to improve to 2-1 on the year. Jeff Jaeckel was 2-for-3 with two RBI.
KSS hosted Port Townsend Thursday, but results from that game were unavailable at press time.
