After picking up its first sweep of the season, Yelm High School’s baseball team itself was swept by the Peninsula Seahawks. The Tornados played a home-and-road series against the South Sound Conference school early last week.
The Seahawks defeated the Tornados, 6-2, on Monday, April 1, at Sehmel Homestead Park. In the second and final matchup of the season series, Yelm lost 2-0 on Tuesday, April 2, at Yelm High School.
Yelm head coach Dakota Hill said the team had a hard time producing runs in the two matchups with South Sound Conference opponent Peninsula.
“We had a lot of balls hit hard at people, but that’s just baseball. There’s a couple of places where we have to control ourselves in the batters box better,” Hill said. “The first game we gave up too many freebies. The second one was just tough.”
Coming out of the series sweep, the young Tornados practiced on Wednesday, April 3, before taking the rest of the week off for rest.
“Baseball is a mentally demanding sport and giving them an opportunity to reset, be with family, and get their minds off ball for a bit is extremely beneficial,” Hill said.
Hill added that he believes the team played well in the 2-0 loss on April 2 at home.
“Baseball is fickle sometimes. I thought our at-bats were good, not great,” Hill said. “[The Seahawks] did a great job controlling the run game and throwing strikes, too, so props to them.”
With just eight conference games remaining in the season, Hill said the team needs to “come to the yard each day expecting to win and compete.”
“We don’t play other teams. We play the game and respect the game,” Hill said. “It’s going to take everyone having the same goal, to win no matter what is asked of you.”
The Tornados played Capital High School on Tuesday, April 9. Results of the contest were not available prior to The Nisqually Valley News press time.
