HS Baseball: Tumwater Gets First Home Win Over Woodland

4/3/25

Tumwater 8, Woodland 3

(Tumwater, WA) Both the Woodland Beavers and Tumwater Thunderbirds got a good opportunity on Thursday afternoon as the two teams took the field in what was a nonleague District 4 matchup. With Woodland as a member of the GSHL 2A and Tumwater in the EvCo 2A, the two leagues obviously crossover for the district tournament every year, and Thursday was an opportunity for both those teams to get a feel for what the other league has to offer before diving into their own league play in the coming weeks.

Woodland already had a similar opportunity when they were shutout by Black Hills 4-0 last week while Tumwater would be playing just their second 2A opponent after a gauntlet to open up the season against not only bigger schools, but legit state contenders in those bigger classifications.

Tumwater came out of the gates firing in the early innings and cashed in on some Woodland mistakes. A leadoff walk in the bottom of the 1st put Derek Thompson on and he ended up at third after a couple of wild pitches. Jimmy Womach drove in the first run of the game with an RBI groundout to make it 1-0 before the T-Birds added on in the 2nd. A walk to Charlie Crawford and an error allowed Braeden Konrad to reach. Another error and a wild pitch ended up scoring both of them as Tumwater took the early 3-0 lead.

A single to begin the 3rd for Seth Popp was the first hit of the game for Woodland. A couple of walks loaded the bases for Logan Fahey. He never had to take the bat off his shoulder as he got the RBI on a walk to make it 3-1 with the bases loaded and nobody out. Tumwater catcher Wyatt Chase helped out his pitcher Charlie Crawford by picking off Fahey at first for the first out. That settled Crawford in as he struck out the next two batters to escape the jam. Tumwater got that run right back thanks to a single and a couple of stolen bases by Luke Overbay before Braeden Konrad drove him in with a two-out single to make it 4-1.

Woodland cut right back into that deficit in the 4th after Rory Hamilton walked with one out. Austen Woody would also walk to put a couple of men on with one out. Seth Popp came to the plate and hit a grounder to third which looked like it could turn into an inning ending double play. The T-Birds cut down Woody at second but the throw to first was off line, allowing Hamilton to score and making it 4-2.

In the bottom of the 5th, Tumwater’s offense found their groove. With one out, Landon Roy singled to put a man on before Kaleb Petersen walked as well. Wild pitches put them at second and third and Braeden Konrad came through again with a sacrifice fly to center to score Roy. Another wild pitch allowed Petersen to score as well to open up the Tumwater lead to 6-2.

Both teams scored in the 6th as well as a double by Trent Blatnik led to a Woodland run on another Tumwater error trying to turn the double play. The T-Birds responded with an RBI double from Landon Roy and an error to put up two in the home half to make it 8-3. Jimmy Womach entered to try to close things out for Tumwater and retired the first two men he faced. After Jake Sams drew a walk, Womach bounced back by getting Gavin Beckley to ground out to put the game away. Tumwater fended off every Woodland rally to get their first home win of the season, 8-3.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the game went to Braeden Konrad for Tumwater. Not only did Konrad handle the hot corner with ease, but he also went 1-3 at the plate with a couple of RBI and a run scored as well. Konrad was aggressive at the plate as he only saw more than three pitches in one plate appearance and also was aggressive in the field cutting off some grounders and making plays at third base.

The win moves Tumwater back to .500 as they go to 3-3 and get set for a tough showdown on Saturday. The T-Bird will head up to Cheney Stadium to take on the Enumclaw Hornets, who knocked Tumwater out of the playoffs in a 9-8 thriller last spring. Woodland drops to 2-3 and will also return to action on Saturday when they travel to take on La Center at 4pm.