By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

MEDICAL LAKE, Wash.–  The Withnell Dodgers continued to duplicate their success coming off of their 2022 Wood Bat Classic in Spokane opening loss to the Spokane Crew 19U Friday afternoon.

Even in their 9-8 defeat the Dodgers bats were there.  And Withnell’s bats continued to feed off of their next three games with run totals of 12, 10 and 11 against the Expos Williamson 18U, Whatcom Baseball Club Post 8 and the Spokane Cannons 18U.

Western Christian’s Rylan Webster led the squad Saturday in their doubleheader with 5RBI’s, including four in Withnell’s 11-0 win over the Cannons.  South Salem’s Cole Weiland contributed 4RBI’s as well.

“It always feels good to get some hits and RBI’s to help your team win,” Webster said. “I think the biggest thing for us was stringing hits together.  We were getting a few hits here and there, but once we finally were stringing them together…that was the big key for us.”

Outside of their one bad inning against the Crew Friday, the Withnell defense were locked in.  Sprague’s Taylor Brenneman (six innings) and the Olympians Hayden Laudette (five innings) were efficient in the shortened games.  

Ensuring that they were able to save arms for the remainder of pool play and heading back to Area-3 league games this upcoming week.

“If we can minimize our errors on the defensive side and keep the bats going, our bats are pretty hot right now, then I think we’ll be doing just fine.  Our pitching has been doing a good job, we just got to make plays in the field and keep the bats hot,” Brenneman said.

“It’s pretty good going into our next league series, we’re going to have to be ready to have the bats going and score some runs because that’s very important to winning ball games.  If we can do that and play good defense, I think we’ll be good.”

Withnell finishes up Sunday when they play the Sakatoon Diamondbacks at 9am at Medical Lake High School.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald