The defeat bumps BHS down to third place in the division.

There were some butterflies in the stomachs of the Bainbridge fastpitch team Wednesday.

“A lot of us were really nervous,” second baseman Chelsie Kakela said. “I know I was really nervous. We were excited to come and play, but the nerves” affected them.

They settled down for the rest of the game, but that bad first inning was enough for Holy Names to score three runs and hold on for the 4-2 win.

The loss pushes Bainbridge down to third place in the Metro League Mountain Division.

“We weren’t mentally focused 100 percent in that first inning and that hurt us,” head coach Liz McCloskey said.

But she felt the team did well in overcoming their one bad inning and didn’t let it affect them the rest of the way.

“It was a whole different game in the second inning on,” she said. “Haylee (Baker) pitched well, and Chelsie had a hell of a hit.

“People were getting base hits but we weren’t able to move them around. That’s something we need to work on.”

With a steady rain falling in the first inning, the first two batters for the Cougars doubled and singled, with the second batter advancing to third on two throwing errors.

The next batter bunted, but first baseman Lindsay Willmann committed another error when she overthrew Brittany Wisner trying to get the runner at home.

After Baker got the next two batters out with a strikeout and a groundout, she gave up a walk and a bunt single, but Wisner threw out a runner at second to end the inning.

Holy Names scored again in the second when Baker gave up another walk, then after a strikeout, gave up two singles to drive in another run.

Bainbridge got their only runs of the game when Baker walked, then Kakela drilled a fastball into centerfield for a two-run homerun, her fifth of the season.

Kakela said she doesn’t think about always sending one out.

“It’s a matter of not thinking about it too much and not swinging for the fences,” she said. “Just (take) a nice, easy swing.”

“The amount of power that comes out of a little person like her is amazing,” McCloskey said. “Yeah, you expect power out of (Willmann) but Chelsie Kakela, I don’t think, in her wildest dreams, ever thought she’d be hitting five home runs on the season.”

The Spartans had a chance to score in the fifth when Wisner and shortstop Cara Thompson singled with two outs, but Farleigh Winters came in to strike out Willmann to end the threat.

In the seventh, Baker got on board with a single, but Kakela popped out on the first pitch she saw and Wisner grounded out.

“I’ve been having a lot of problems dropping my hands,” Kakela said. “I’m trying to fix that now.”

Bainbridge played Holy Names yesterday at the University of Washington in a game they need to get back into first place.

Tracksters do well in meet

The Bainbridge track team turned in some top times at their home meet against Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic Thursday.

For the girls, Maddie Sheldon took home top three finishes with her first place time of 13.1 in the 100 meter dash and third place in the 200 meter dash with a time of 27.6.

Sheldon, along with Lauren Fleming, Elizabeth Brackett and Morgan Nottingham, took second in the 4×100 relay with a time of 51.8 seconds, .5 off the first place time.

Brackett finished second in the 100 and 200 meter dash, while Fleming took first in the high jump with a mark of four feet, eight inches.

Sylvia Stellmacher was second in the 400 meter dash but took home first in the 4×400 relay with Callie McKenzie, Molly O’Keefe and Maren Swanson.

Swanson was second in the high jump and third in the discus, but finished first in the triple jump with a mark of 30 feet, 7.25 inches.

O’Keefe was third in the 800 meter run while McKenzie was second to Emily Farrar in the 1600 meter run.

Tess Sadowsky was first in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 17.4.

The girls won the meet with 75 points.

For the boys, Cheyne Clark finished first in the pole vault with a mark of 13 feet, nine inches.

He finished second in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 17.2.

The 4×400 relay team of Austin Hallett, Greg Nance, Bevan Taylor and Patrick Wauters took first with a time of 3:30.8.

Taylor finished first in the 800 meter run with a time of 1:58.7, while Nance, Hallett and Wauters all tied for first in the 400 meter dash with a time of 52.2.

Alex Carter finished first in the high jump with a mark of five feet, eight inches and took second in the long jump.

Zach Cram was first in the discus with a mark of 122 feet, 7.5 inches.

Bainbridge will take part in the South Whidbey Invite and the South Kitsap Invitational this weekend.

They host Rainier Beach and Cleveland next Thursday.

Select baseball starts strong

After five months of practice, the 13U Island Stars baseball team finally opened their Sandy Koufax league season by beating Auburn 3-2 and Bellevue 9-1.

In the first game against Auburn, Quinn Eldridge pitched six strong innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out eight hitters. The Stars overcame a 2-0 deficit in the bottom of the sixth inning to score all of their runs on hits by Eldridge, Robby Ackerley and Nick Denney. Landon Cray then came on in relief to preserve the win.

Steven Wellbrock and Nick Denney dominated Bellevue from the mound in the second game. Wellbrock and Eric Raustein both hit home runs to power the Stars offense.

This marks the first time that the Kitsap Peninsula has fielded a team in Washington State’s most competitive youth league.

“Prior to this the top players in our Little League program consistently left the island to play for select teams on the east side,” Island Stars coach Jeff Bowman said. “That includes all but one of the players currently starting on this year’s varsity team at the high school.”

The Island Stars roster includes several players from the Bainbridge team that took fifth place out of 95 teams last summer in Cooperstown, New York.

The team also has players from North Kitsap, and the Chimacum team that represented the Kitsap Peninsula at last year’s Little League state championships.

Steven Wellbrock, Landon Cray, Nick Denney, Lars Nelson, Caleb Samson, Henry Indvik, Eric Raustein, Justin Straight, Quinn Eldridge, Aaron Nordberg, Ryan Schreck, Tyler Riley, Chance Roebke and Robbie Ackerley make up the roster.

The Island Stars are affiliated with the Seattle Stars program that since 2001 has won 19 State championships and eight National Championships. They also placed third at last summer’s Junior Olympics. Most of the top high school programs across the state currently have Stars players on their rosters, including; Jackson, Auburn, Bainbridge, Snohomish, and Edmonds.