Falcon golfers beat Murphy
The South Whidbey boys golf team wrapped up their regular season at 10-0 Thursday with a 201-203 win over Archbishop Murphy at Useless Bay Golf Club.
For the Falcons, Brooks Guetlin shot 37, John Lindsay 38, Blake Blakey 41, Jensen Connor 42 and Nathan Kamps 43.
Tennis team ramps up for districts
The South Whidbey girls tennis team trounced Blaine April 29, but had a tougher time against Bellingham at home on Wednesday.
The Falcons’ Lindsey Newman remained undefeated at Blaine, winning 6-1, 6-0. Natalie Wheeler won 6-3, 6-4, Jen Gemkow won 6-3, 6-4 and Maya Hough won 6-4, 6-1.
In doubles action, Victoria Comfort and Shannon Craig won 6-4, 6-3, Nicole Zalewski and Julia Iversen won 6-2, 6-2 and Noelle Metz and Nicole Steward won 6-3, 6-1.
Things were different with Bellingham, with only the two top Falcon singles players winning their matches.
Newman beat Bellingham’s leading singles player Maddy Pierce 6-0, 6-1.
“Yeah, my game is getting better but my serve and feet placement needs improvement,” she said after the match.
Wheeler won 6-2, 6-1, Gemkow lost 3-6, 2-6 and Hough lost 1-6, 4-6.
All three doubles matches were taken by the girls from Bellingham as Comfort and Zalewski lost 4-6, 3-6, Iversen and Craig lost 2-6, 1-6 and Steward and Metz lost 1-6 and 4-6.
“There is a reason that Bellingham is undefeated this season,” Falcon coach Tom Kramer said. “They are a very good team, well-coached and they concentrate well individually.”
Kramer was happy with Newman and Wheeler’s efforts.
“Both concentrated throughout the match, were consistent and played smart tennis. The rest of the team allowed themselves to get rattled just a bit,” he said.
Falcons overpower Anacortes, advance
The South Whidbey baseball team grew up fast Tuesday as they unexpectedly beat the Anacortes Seahawks 3-2 in a league crossover game.
The young Falcons seem to be undaunted in the last third of the season by playing the top teams of the league and being quite the spoiler.
“So far they have knocked Archbishop Murphy out of the title chase and Cedarcrest out of the championship,” said Falcon coach Dave Guetlin.
Adam Babcock on the mound threw six shutout innings for the Falcons before giving way to Luke Hodson who picked up his second save of the season.
In a scoreless game until the sixth inning, Robert Kirby led off with a single to center and was followed by a Nick Tenuta single.
The Seahawks then gave Trapper Rawls an intentional walk to load the bases. Kirby then scored on a failed pickoff attempt at third with the other runners moving up 90 feet.
Tenuta then scored on a sacrifice fly to right field by Eric Sparks making it 2-0. Rawls then was picked up for the third run on a single to right by Hodson to make it 3-0.
Babcock then retired the Seahawks in order to end the sixth.
And it got interesting in the seventh as Anacortes started with a lead off double to center and followed with a two run home run to left field making it 3-2 with no outs. The Seahawks then sacrificed the runner to second but had one out. A seeing-eye-hit then put runners at first and third with the possible winning run at first.
Hodson then enticed a ground ball to Kirby at shortstop, who quickly fired to Sparks at second, then Rawls at first for the 6-4-3 double play to end the game.
“The Falcons defense was superb on the day without committing an error,” Guetlin said.
The win means South Whidbey plays Cascade Conference leader Lakewood at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at Volunteer Park in Anacortes.
Fastpitch Falcons lose to Cougars
The Falcon fastpitch softball team lost 6-1 to the Lakewood Cougars Thursday.
The Falcons started off the contest with leadoff hitter Natasha Roberts’ infield single to the left side of Lakewood’s defense. Mel Murphy laid down a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt that moved Roberts to second.
On the next pitch, Roberts stole third to add to her impressive stolen base total of 16 for the season.
“Natasha is one of the best base runners in the league and she’s getting better,” said Falcon coach Chuck Burton. “She is starting to recognize what the defense is giving her and capitalizing on their lack of base coverage.”
Kelsie Dorpat came to the plate and put the ball into play which scored the runner from third for the first RBI of the game.
Clean-up hitter Allison Wood came to the plate and knocked a home run over the left field fence to give the Falcons their second and final run of the inning and game.
Throughout, South Whidbey’s offense was in position to score.
“We loaded the bases in the third inning but Lakewood’s defense rose to the occasion and doubled us off on a line drive,” Burton said. “The good part is we are consistently getting into scoring position but we are still one hit away from the rally we are looking for.”
