Pitchers lead South Whidbey Little League to tournament win / 10-12 baseball

By Jim Waller • July 9, 2019 1:30 am

Showing off its impressive pitching depth, the South Whidbey Major Little League all-star team won its District 11 tournament opener 6-0 over Central Whidbey Monday, July 8, at Oak Harbor’s Windjammer Park.

Five South Whidbey pitchers combined to pitch a one-hitter with 16 strikeouts and no walks.

South Whidbey now faces host North Whidbey at 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 9, in the quarterfinals. North Whidbey had a bye in the first round.

Kasen Parsell, Dylan Paine, Grady Davis, Malachi Pierson and Connor Bartel all threw for South Whidbey, and all were effective.

The mound crew mowed down the first 11 Central Whidbey hitters by strikeout; the streak was broken with two outs in the fourth inning by an error. That runner, however, was quickly erased when he attempted to steal.

Central Whidbey’s only hit came with two outs in the fifth.

By rotating his pitchers, South Whidbey coach Steve Zarifis kept the pitch count of each low enough that all will be eligible to pitch in the next game.

South Whidbey scored all the runs it needed in the first inning when it tallied twice. Paine reached on an error and Parsell singled to put two on. A ground out by Davis plated one run and Pierson singled in the other.

In the second inning, Sage Northrup was hit by a pitch and eventually scored on Paine’s base hit.

In the third, three errors, and single by Davis and a bases-loaded walk to Matthew Tarantino resulted in two more runs to make it 5-0.

South Whidbey scored its final run in the fourth when Parsell doubled in Bartel, who had singled.

For the day, Parsell finished with a double, single and RBI; Davis had two singles; Paine and Pierson each singled in a run; and Alexander Zarifis singled.