Take A Walk On The Wild Side -- Oak Harbor's Wildcats Are State- Bound After Walk Scores Winning Run

-- EVERETT

The bases were loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie baseball game, and Oak Harbor's Justin Talmadge was having flashbacks.

"I saw my high-school career flash before my eyes," Talmadge said.

As Talmadge saw a low fastball flash before his eyes, the Wildcats captured a 4-3 victory over Shorewood in a loser-out game of the Western AAA Conference district baseball tournament yesterday at Everett Stadium.

Talmadge drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Josh Sarpy with the winning run as the Wildcats rallied from a 3-0 deficit to qualify for state. The loss eliminated Shorewood.

Oak Harbor (13-8) plays WesCo champion Cascade (15-4) in a best-of-three series, starting with a single game today at 5:30 p.m. at Everett Stadium. The series, which determines seeding for regionals, continues Saturday.

Wildcat Coach Jim Waller swears he doesn't have a secret potion that makes Oak Harbor a dangerous team when they're behind.

"If you could bottle it and sell it, you'd be rich," he said. "We've done it all year. We've come back in many games."

The gutsy Talmadge, who survived a rough start to throw a five-hitter, wasn't surprised the Wildcats rallied for the win.

"With the tradition we have at Oak Harbor, we never say die," he said. "All the guys know that."

Trailing 3-2, Oak Harbor's Chris Fleharty led off the seventh with a single. After a strikeout, a walk and an error loaded the

bases, Maurice Perigo walked on four straight pitches, bringing Fleharty home with the tying run.

That brought up Talmadge, who took two balls from Shorewood starter Brian Aasland. Thunderbird Coach Tom Demetre brought in Paul O'Breen, the starting shortstop, to pitch to Talmadge.

O'Breen's first pitch was a ball, but the next two were strikes. On the 3-2 count, Talmadge squared around to bunt. If the pitch had been a strike, Talmadge would have tried to bring Sarpy home on a squeeze play.

The pitch was low and outside. As Talmadge sprinted to first base, Sarpy touched home plate, which touched off an Oak Harbor celebration. The Wildcats advanced to state for the third time in four years.

"It wasn't Paul who lost the game. It wasn't Brian," Demetre said. "We just didn't hit. . . . They got the big hits, and we didn't. We had guys on base the first five innings. We should've buried them."

Warming up for the game, Talmadge was hot. Too hot. The Thunderbirds turned up the heat by scoring three runs in the first two innings as Talmadge struggled.

"I don't know how hot it was, but I felt like I was in a sauna," he said. "The combination of not pitching for quite a while and the weather and being sick, it would've been much worse if I was getting my curveball over. My fastball, I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with it."

Talmadge settled down, retiring 10 straight batters to give the Wildcats a chance to creep back into the game.

Oak Harbor used three walks, a base hit and an errant pick-off attempt to score twice in the fourth inning.

O'Breen had a run-scoring single in the second inning and teamed with second baseman Randy Ho to turn two double plays that killed potential Oak Harbor rallies.

Shorewood's Kris Ebbighausen had a fine game with two singles and threw out a pair of would-be base stealers.

The Thunderbirds, who lost four of their first six games, ended the season with a 12-8 record. They were 3-17 last season.

"We had a great year," Demetre said. "Last year, they won three games. They did everything I asked of them, and we were one inning from state."