4/26/16
WF West 10, Black Hills 0
(Chehalis, WA) The Bearcats rolled over the Wolves and with the win combined with Centralia’s loss to Tumwater have clinched the Evco 2A Baseball Championship and #1 seed into the District Tournament. The Bearcats improved to 6-1 while Centralia and Tumwater are now tied for 2nd with 3-4 records and Black Hills is 2-5.
The scramble is to stay out of 4th place and with 2 games still to play the door is open for any of the 3 teams to fall to 4th place. The Wolves host WF West on Wednesday while Tumwater goes to Centralia. The winner of the Tigers and T-Birds will take over 2nd place and if Black Hills can knock-off the Bearcats who have now clinched they would be tied for 3rd with 1 game to play.
The top 3 will advance directly to the District tournament while 4th place looks like they will have to play a play-in game with Aberdeen and the winner of that game will have to play a pigtail game with the GSHL’s 5th place team just to get into the District tournament as a 4 seed. So plenty of motivation not to finish in 4th place.
Tumwater 5, Centralia 4 (8)
(Tumwater, WA) This game had a little bit of everything from a complete game, 140 pitch performance from Centralia’s Riley Christensen to throwing out a runner at home thanks to an ankle, clutch hitting and devastating errors.
The T-Birds had a chance to score in the 1st when Noah Andrews led off with a single and stole 2nd then moved to 3rd on an overthrow error. Keenan Milligan then grounded a hot shot off the foot of Christensen which then ricocheted to Tigers 3rd baseman Christian Peters. Meantime, Andrews took off from 3rd on the crack of the bat and Peters gunned it home to catcher Chase Evinger who swiped at Andrews where the umpire ruled he touched Andrews’ foot denying the T-Birds the early lead.
Tumwater would strike first in the 2nd when Jackson Davis drew a walk. Jacob Crawford came in to run for Davis and scored on 2 errors committed by the Tigers and it was 1-0. Tumwater added another run in the bottom of the 3rd when Andrews led off with a hit and moved to 2nd on a sac bunt by Austin Pullar. Milligan then walked and with runners on the corners Jacob Dardano ground one to 2nd scoring Andrews giving the T-birds a 2-0 lead.
Centralia put things together in the 5th inning when Fletcher Brown singled with 1 out. Christensen would then strike out but the ball would get past Tumwater catcher Davis and Christensen beat the throw to 1st and the Tigers were in business with runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 down. Evinger then sac bunted them over to 2nd and 3rd bringing up #3 hitter Nolan Wasson. Wasson ripped a shot into right-center for a 2 out, 2-RBI double and the game was tied at 2.
The Tigers would take the lead in the top of the 6th when Garrett Hicks got to 1st on an error. Isaiah Trevino then sac bunted Hicks to 2nd. After a grounder to 1st which moved Hicks to 3rd Cody Parker came through with a 2 out RBI single to give Centralia a 3-2 lead.
The lead would be short lived as Tumwater tied it in the bottom of the 6th when Noah Sirkel walked with 1 out and then stole 2nd. Davis then walked again and Jarid Barrett grounded one to Wasson who turned it to 2nd for the 2nd out and Cody Parker sent it to 1st but not in time and Barrett was safe while Sirkel was coming home and scored the tying run.
The two teams would head to the 7th and Joseph Brascher was on the hill relieving T-Bird starter Logan Chase. With 2 on and 2 out Trevino drilled a shot right back at Braacher and the balled bounced off the mound and ended up between the hill and 1st base when Brascher was able to get to the loose ball and still get the speedy Trevino denying the Tigers the go-ahead run. This play would also earn our ProActive Physical Therapy Play of the Game.
Off to extra innings the game went and in the top of the 8th the Tigers took the lead when Joey Aliff singled to lead off the inning. Parker then sacrificed bunted him to 2nd. After a pop-up and 2 walks the bases were loaded for Wasson. Wasson ripped a hard shot to 3rd baseman Sam Jones who slightly bobbled the ball but that would be all Wasson would need to get to 1st safely while Aliff scored the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the inning the T-Birds had to score at least 1 to extend the game but did better than that thanks to the Tigers 7th error in the game. Sirkel led off with a base hit followed by a walk. A sacrfife bunt moved the runners to 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. After an intentional walk to Michael Wagar who had already had a base hit and infield pop-up was the 2nd out. The bases were loaded but 2 outs when Noah Andrews grounded a ball to Wasson when the unthinkable happened to the all-league short stop, the ball took a little bounce and ran up his arm and before he could recover Sirkel and Andrew Pullar running for Davis scored the tying and winning runs and the game was over.
Our Tommy Lowe of the Greene Realty Group Players of the Game went to Tumwater’s Michael Wagar for his offense and a tremendous play in the field at first. We also awarded it to Centralia’s Riley Christensen for his 140-pitch effort.
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