Sports recap: Postseason in play for Wolves

Here’s a recap of Sequim High School’s prep teams games last week, including postseason play.

Girls Tennis

Two Sequim players earned their way to the District III girls tennis tournament this weekend in Bremerton having to face each other for placement.

Tiffany Lam and Amara Gonzalez earned the fifth and sixth seeds in singles play face-off at the Olympic League Girls Tennis Tournament last weekend.

Doubles team Kristina Prorok and Sasha Yada also earned an alternate spot for the Wolves.

At the league tournament, Lam won her first two matches – 6-1,6-1 over Bainbridge players Serena Hinshaw, and 7-6, 6-1 over Katherine Walker. For her third match, she lost to league champion Teagan Devries of North Kitsap 6-0, 6-0. In the consolation she lost to Olympic’s Annabelle Waldman 6-1, 6-3 and had to play Gonzalez to earn fifth place.

Gonzalez also opened with two wins, going 6-4, 7-5 over Noelle Oborholtzer of North Kitsap, and Waldman, 6-2, 6-3, before losing to Bainbridge’s Cece Combs 6-3, 6-2, in a rematch with Oborholtzer, and Lam.

Sequim’s Calleigh Thompson opened the league tournament with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Bremerton’s Lucy Cao but lost to Devries 6-0 in two sets, and to Oborholtzer in three sets.

In doubles play, Prorok and Yada won their first match 6-2, 1-6, 6-4 over Port Angeles’ Cayleigh Alward and Abby Riffle, but they lost to eventual league champions Malia Lemieux and Elee Schuman of Bainbridge in 6-0 sets.

Sydney Thomas-Harris and Kendall Day went 1-2 including a 6-1, 6-3 win over Port Angeles’ Audrey Rudd and Pyper Alton, but they had to face Prorok and Yada losing 1-6, 6-2, 10-8.

Prorok and Yada lost their next match in three sets, but won the alternate seed over Alward and Riffle.

The District III tournament runs May 16-17 at the Kitsap Tennis and Athletic Center in Bremerton.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Sequim’s Bryant Laboy slides into third base for a triple against Bremerton on May 7. Sequim won the game 6-4

Baseball

Sequim’s baseball team was set to play in the District 3 2A tournament game on Monday after the Gazette’s press deadline.

Sequim (7-7, 8-12) plays at Olympic (7-7, 11-9) at 4:15 p.m. They were tied for fourth place in the Olympic League.

Both games are loser-out contests, with the winners moving on to double elimination.

If Sequim wins, the Wolves play at Bainbridge (14-0, 16-4) at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Leading up to the postseason, the Wolves won four in a row, including back-to-back games with Bremerton. To finish the regular season on May 7, the Wolves slugged three triples in 6-4 win. Bryant Laboy’s third-inning triple to center field brought home Devyn Dearinger with the eventual winning run.

Braydan White added his triple in the bottom of the fourth, scoring on a wild pitch to give himself some insurance on the mound. White closed out the game, allowing one hit and two walks with four strikeouts over three innings after taking over for starter Ethan Staples.

On May 6, Sequim defeated Bremerton 4-0 behind a three-hit shutout from Zeke Schmadeke. He pitched the entire game, giving up three hits and no walks, while striking out six.

At the plate, Hunter Tennell was 2-for-3 with a run scored, while Lincoln Bear was 2-for-3 with a double and three RBIs. Laboy had a double and a run scored, while Clay Abrams had a hit and an RBI.

Photo by Dave Logan Sequim’s Evan Cisneros yells for support from a teammate to get into position for a pass as he controls the ball heading up field on May 10 at Peninsula College. Sequim won 2-1 against Steilacoom.

Boys Soccer

The Sequim soccer team had a thriller in overtime against Steilacoom on Saturday at Peninsula College’s Wally Sigmar Field to open postseason play.

The Wolves quickly got up 1-0 with a Nico Musso goal in the game’s sixth minute.

That lead held up nearly the entire match. Steilacoom had a couple of golden chances late in regulation as a header off a free kick went off keeper Nolan Valenzuela’s hand and off the crossbar. Valenzuela also made a couple of other diving saves in the second half, including one in which he had to dive one direction and then back in the other direction as a Steilacoom player swooped in on the rebound.

Steilacoom finally broke through in the 75th minute when Valenzuela was able to block the shot, but the rebound got away from him and the Sentinels this time were able to knock the ball in for a goal.

That led to overtime. In the fourth minute, Josh Alcaraz made a great through pass to a streaking Evan Cisneros who got past the defense onside and kicked the ball in to give the Wolves the lead.

Coach Dave Breckenridge said that in the overtime, “Sequim just wanted it more than they did.”

“It was good to see Evan score,” Breckenridge said. He said that while Valenzuela made the one mistake letting a rebound get away from him, he “played fantastic” for the rest of the game.

The Wolves had to play another six minutes as there was a lot of confusion among the officials about whether a playoff game has a golden goal (sudden death) rule.

While it appears Sequim had to play an extra six minutes it shouldn’t have had to play, fortunately, it didn’t affect the final result as the Wolves hung on for the 2-1 victory.

With the victory, the Wolves (7-8, 7-8) move on to play at No. 2-ranked Bainbridge (14-0, 16-0) on Tuesday.

Sequim lost to Bainbridge 8-0 and 4-0 earlier in the season.

Breckenridge said the Wolves will be loose for that game, knowing they are in the double-elimination phase of the district tournament and knowing they will move on to play another game, win or lose.

“There’s things we’ll work on to get better,” he said.

Track and Field

The Port Angeles and Sequim girls track teams both had excellent showings at the Olympic League track and field championships last weekend with the schools combining for a total of seven individual and relay first-place finishes.

For Sequim, Dawn Hulstedt won the girls 800-meter run in a time of 2 minutes, 16.62 seconds, a personal record. She also came in second in the 1,600 with a time of 5:17.91.

The Sequim 4×200 relay team (Birdie Pyeatt, Kylie Peters, Hulstedt and Ruby Moxley-Horgan) finished first in a time of 1:49.66. Finally, the Wolves’ Clare Turella won the high jump with a leap of 4-10.

Overall, Port Angeles finished fifth in league for the girls with 73.5 points. Sequim was sixth with 65.

Sequim’s top boys finish was by Sean Southard in the javelin. Port Angeles’ boys finished fifth with 80 points, while Sequim was eighth with 21.

The West-Central District 3 track and field championships will be held May 21 and May 23 at Bremerton High School.

Fastpitch

Sequim had two away games last week losing 9-2 on May 6 to Olympic, and 1-0 to North Kitsap on May 8. They were set to finish the regular season on Monday hosting Bremerton on Monday and Bainbridge on May 14.

Golf

Three Sequim girls, Sara German, Chloe Tweter and Kendra Dodson will compete at the West Central District Golf 2A state tournament qualifier on May 13 at Allenmore Golf Club in Tacoma. Raimey Brewer already qualified for the state meet set for May 20-21 in Tumwater. For the boys, Adrian Aragon will also compete at the boys district tournament at Allenmore. Levi Breithaupt is an alternate for the boys and Kaiya Robinson for the girls squad.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Sequim’s bench celebrates a big play on May 7 during the Wolves’ 6-4 win over Bremerton. The Wolves had three triples in the game.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Adrian Mendez looks to make a big kick against North Kitsap on May 6.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen/ Josh Alcaraz drives past a North Kitsap player on May 6. The Wolves lost the regular season match 3-0, but won their first postseason game 2-1 against Steilacoom on May 10.