Saturday was a good day for the Redmond Baseball team. They hosted Newport for a game originally scheduled for Wednesday evening. The teams went back and forth until the dramatic Mustang victory on a walk-off by Dillon Hartman.
This one looked like it may be a low scoring affair as pitchers dominated early. Baserunners were scarce on both sides. Redmond starter Cole Uyematsu retired the first 9 Newport batters in order. The Stangs were limited to just one run in the second when Josh Roof doubled on a line drive to left center field and Seamus Brown followed with an RBI single to put the Mustangs up 1-0.
Newport picked up a run in 4th to tie the game 1-1. Uyematsu went 5 strong innings and was helped with couple of nice plays by outfielders Jon Holmen and Ethan Tung. He finished with 9 strikeouts, 1 hit and no walks on the day and left with the score still tied 1-1.
Redmond pulled ahead again in the bottom of the 5th when Andrew McBain drew a two out walk and Austin Paul doubled to right field to make the score 2-1.
The Knights rallied in the top of the 6th with a two out bases loaded double off of reliever Josh Roof to put Newport up 3-2.
Redmond tied it up again 3-3 in the bottom half of the 6th when Dillon Hartman drew a walk, then stole second, and Jon Holmen followed with RBI single to center field.
Kai Drotz took over for Roof on the mound following Newport’s leadoff single in the 7th. Drotz was sharp in his first appearance on the year and struck out two in his only inning of work but Newport scored one to put the Knights up 4-3 heading to the bottom half of the inning.
Andrew McBain drew a walk to lead off the 7th and put the game-tying run on first base. Austin Paul then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move McBain to second. The Newport pitcher missed on a 2-0 pitch to Kai Drotz and he drove it down the left-field line for a double that scored McBain and tied the score 4-4. Dillon Hartman stepped to the plate with one out and Drotz on second. He worked the count to 2-0 and then drove a ball that one-hopped into the center field fence and brought Drotz around to score for the walk-off win!
Redmond upped its record to 2-1 in KingCo play and 3-2 overall. The Mustangs host Bothell Monday night at Hartman.