Braves' late comeback falls short in Sultan

The shorthanded La Conner Braves baseball team had a long afternoon in Sultan April 2.

The 2B Braves, minus key starters for a non-league spring break road game, trailed early but rallied late to force extra innings before falling 13-12 to the 1A hosts.

La Conner (3-3 overall) erupted for nine runs in the top of the seventh inning to tie the score at 11-11.

Braves reliever Kenai Zimmerman then set Sultan down in order in the home half of the seventh, pushing the contest to an eighth frame.

In the top of the eighth, La Conner took a brief 12-11 lead when eighth-grader Angus Poprycz drew a walk, advanced on a pair of walks, then scored on a wild pitch.

Sultan, however, answered in the bottom of the eighth with a pair of runs on singles by Miguel Limon and Chris Lopez to clinch the triumph.

With the win, Sultan improved to 3-2 on the season.

La Conner, though, made the Turks earn the win the hard way. Trailing 11-2 after six innings, the Braves sent 15 batters to the plate in the seventh, tying the score but stranding three runners after having loaded the bases with one out.

The nine-run comeback was fueled by singles from C.J. Edwards and Brogan Masonholder and a double by Kaleb Otis. The Braves took advantage of three hit batters, a walk and four Sultan errors in the inning.

La Conner had forged a 1-1 deadlock in the third on a walk to David Holt and a run-scoring double by Edwards.

The Braves tallied a second run in the sixth when Logan Burks led off with a walk and later scored on a balk. But by then La Conner trailed 9-2. The Turks built their largest lead of the day with two runs in the sixth.

The Braves were without starters Nathan Bailey and Charley Jackson.

The La Conner High School softball team (0-5) also dropped a non-conference test at Sultan, losing 19-4 after having suffered heartbreaking one-run setbacks to Muckleshoot and Orcas Island.

Both La Conner teams were scheduled at NW2B/1B rival Concrete April 9. They resume league action Thursday, April 10, with respective 4 p.m. starts in Coupeville.