The Pam Pack baseball team gave its second straight scrappy performance but unfortunately for the second straight time it did not translate into a win as Washington fell 1-0 to West Carteret in both team’s regular season finale on Thursday.
The pitching and defense was there, as senior Christian Lambert gave a strong performance on the mound on the team’s Senior Night. However, the Pack could not produce a run on its six hits as a season’s worth of growing pains came to an end.
The inspiring efforts provided late in the season marked improvement for a young Pam Pack team that showed glimpses of what could be bright future.
“I felt like we played well defensively for the most part and battled,” Washington coach Ryan Whitney said. “I think it’s definitely a positive step going forward. Unfortunately, we were on the short end again of another one or two run game. It’s a positive coming back and there is certainly plenty for us to build on.”
The Pam Pack honored seniors Chase Baynor, Dustin Moore, Greg Squires and Lambert before the game. Once the game got started, Lambert got hot as he scattered five hits over 5 1/3 innings of work and struck out four for the Pack.
“Christian was outstanding,” Whitney said. “I’m very happy for him. It’s been a long, winding road for that kid and I’ve seen him grow up a lot from February to now. It’s just very unfortunate for him that we couldn’t get him two runs to get him a win.”
The Pam Pack, who finished the year with a 3-19 (3-11) record, totaled six hits as Zach Parker went 1-1, Devon Van Cura was 1-3, Xavier Clark finished 2-2, while Lambert and Bradley Smith went 1-2.
The Patriots picked up their lone run in the second as Alex Webb drove in Joe Corbett to take the lead.
Webb ended the game going 1-3, while Kris Lindner, Trent Carpenter, Richard Randell and Corbett had a hit apiece
Cody Dakin was the game’s winning pitcher as he blanked the Pack over seven innings, striking out eight batters while walking only one.

West Carteret    010    000    0    —    1    5
Washington    000    000    0    —    0    6
WP: Cody Dakin; LP: Christian Lambert
Hitting: WC — Trent Carpenter 1-3, Kris Lindner 1-4, Joe Corbett 1-2, Alex Webb 1-3 (RBI, Richard Randall 1-2 (RBI); WHS — Christian Lambert 1-2, Zach Parker 1-1, Devon Van Cura 1-3, Xavier Clark 2-2, Bradley Smith 1-2.