Baseball: Redmond Finds Stroke, Tops Issaquah 15-3

The Redmond baseball team did not look the offensive force it is known as during a 8-1 loss to Inglemoor last Saturday in the first round of the KingCo playoffs.

On Monday against Issaquah, the Mustangs returned to form.

Nick Rothermel and Patrick Mcgrath each homered and drove in five runs and Redmond used a big third inning to pull away from Issaquah and stay alive in the KingCo playoffs with a 15-3 victory on Monday night at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore.

Redmond opened things up with a monster two-out rally in the bottom of the third inning, plating six runs via the long ball.

After Peter Hendron singled to put two runners on with two outs, Mcgrath crushed a three-run homerun to straight-away left field to put the Mustangs up 4-0. After a walk and a bloop hit by T.J. Whidby, Rothermel got in on the action, hitting a towering homerun to right center field to put Redmond up 7-0 and put the game away.

"It was huge," Redmond head Coach Dan Pudwill said of the 2-out hits. "We've been waiting for that, and once it happened, the guys kind of loosened up a bit."

The Mustangs added three runs in the bottom of the fourth on a balk and a 2-RBI single by Rothermel and then posted a five-spot in the bottom of the sixth as Pudwill emptied his bench and watched them bat around.

"It's a good confidence boost," Rothermel said of multiple players performing. "It's nice to know that not only one person can do it. We've got depth in our lineup and we can rely on everyone."

While Redmond was piling on the runs on offense, its pitchers were ensuring the runs would hold up. Michael Conforto stepped out of his usual closer role to start the game and pitched three innings of no-hit ball to go along with 5 strikeouts. "We rolled the dice a little bit," Pudwill said of starting Conforto. "We had our backs against the wall and we've got to find pitchers somewhere, so we stretched out a little bit and got some good innings out of him."

Whidby picked up where Conforto left off, tossing 1 2/3 innings of no-hit ball before Issaquah got its first hit on an infield single with 2 outs in the fifth. The Vikings picked up their only runs in the top of the seventh.

Perhaps more important than their effectiveness against Issaquah, the Mustangs pitching trio allowed Pudwill to rest his ace, Zach Abbruzza, for the next round.

"We feel pretty good about whoever we face with Zach on the hill," Pudwill said.

The win was a much-needed bounce back for Redmond, which was coming off its first first-round loss in the KingCo tournament since 2006. After mustering just five hits in the loss against Inglemoor, Mustang players showed up to the batting cages on Monday to work on their swings, a move that apparently paid off.

Redmond will play Skyline, which lost to Newport later on Monday, at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Woodinvile High School.