The pregame ceremony belonged to retiring longtime Washington assistant baseball coach/team physician Fred “Doc” Austin, but once the first pitch was thrown it was all D.H. Conley as the Pam Pack fell 12-0 to its Coastal Conference rival.
Before the game Washington retired the jersey of Austin and gave thanks for his years of service but on Friday the youthful Pam Pack could not deliver him a win as it was overpowered by the Vikings, one of the top 3-A teams in the state.
“I felt like mentally we were in it and that we wanted to be there and that we competed hard,” Washington baseball coach Ryan Whitney said. “We just made a couple of mistakes here and there. It’s not that we played poorly, we just did not play our very best. We played a very solid baseball team.”
The Vikings attacked with a stellar offensive display as they racked up 12 runs on 13 hits. D.H. Conley struck for one run in the first, two in the second and then added three in the fourth and fifth to get the win.
Davis Kirkpatrick went 3-4 with an RBI for the Vikes, while Bryan Packard finished 1-4 and drove in four runs.
With the lead, Vikings pitcher Peyton Athers sailed as he threw five scoreless innings and struck out six.
Washington tallied four hits on the night as Patrick Thompson, Dustin Moore, Christian Lambert and Neil Jennings each had one, while Jamond Ebron provided a highlight reel catch in the outfield.
Zach Parker threw three innings and allowed six runs on seven hits and struck out two batters to earn the loss for the Pack, but Whitney said his outing was better than the numbers would indicate.
“Zach Parker, and I know what the score says, but realistically he didn’t throw the ball very bad. He just missed on a few spots,” Whitney said.
Lambert came on in relief of Parker and pitched the fourth and fifth innings and yielded six runs on six hits and struck out one batter.
Washington will be back in action on Tuesday where it will look to rebound on the road against Coastal Conference rival South Central.

D.H. Conley    123    330    —    12    13
Washington    000    000    —    0    4
WP: Peyton Athers; LP: Zack Parker
Hitting: D — Tyler Garrett 1-3 (RBI), Davis Kirkpatrick 3-4 (RBI), Bryant Packard 1-4 (4 RBI), Matt Boyd 1-4 Brown Thompson 2-3 (RBI), Ryan Maness 2-2 (RBI), Martin Aaron 1-3, Becker Stephen 1-2, Nick Wherbee 1-2; W — Patrick Thompson 1-3, Dustin Moore 1-2, Christian Lambert 1-2, Neil Jennings 1-1.