TENINO — When Cody Strawn walked over to the Tenino High School baseball diamond knowing it was the final time he’d play on that field, he didn’t know what to expect.
Come the bottom of the seventh in a tie ball game, Strawn waltzed to the plate with the chance to win the game.
“I was confident in myself and my capability to go get us a run,” Strawn said.
The infielder had his senior moment.
Strawn lifted a shallow fly ball to right field that was just deep enough to plate Hunter Sweet for the walk-off sacrifice fly that gave the Beavers a 3-2 triumph over Elma on Tuesday night.
“It was an amazing feeling. I don’t think the script could have been written better for senior night,” Strawn said. “I knew it had a chance; I didn’t know if it was dropping or not.”
It gives Tenino (15-5, 9-3 Evergreen) the series win over the Eagles. All three contests were 3-2 finals and it clinched the No. 2 seed for the Class 1A District 4 tournament that starts next week. The Beavers will face King’s Way Christian, the third seeded team from the Trico League, in the quarterfinals on Monday in Hoquiam.
A handful of years after not sniffing a winning record, Tenino has turned a corner and now needs two wins in the postseason to reach the state tournament.
“For the way to end it, that was perfect,” Beavers head coach Ryan Schlesser said. “These are playoff games and we have to get used to this intensity. We are a very tough team when we want to be and we were today.”
Every contest between Elma and Tenino came down to the wire and Tuesday kept that theme.
The Eagles snared a 2-1 lead in the top half of the seventh on an RBI single. Even when Beavers starter Jack Burkhardt’s velocity was ticking down, Schlesser wasn’t considering pulling him.
The right-hander finished with five strikeouts to earn the win on the mound.
“We were going to ride him,” Schlesser said. “They had guys in scoring position after they scored and he just shut the door. That was huge for him.”
Tenino put the tying run at second base and the winning run on first. Leadoff hitter Will Feltus roped a double to the right field corner that tied the game at two.
Three weeks ago, the shortstop had a similar chance against Centralia and didn’t come through. That moment crept back into his mind.
“There is a lot of pressure,” Feltus said. “I try to take deep breaths. I knew he was going to come up again and got my foot down earlier.”
Schlesser admitted he did think about calling a bunt with Strawn facing a lefty. He backed off and let Strawn swing away.
Once Hunter Sweet crossed home, Strawn was mobbed by his teammates.
“We needed to be the two going into districts,” Strawn said. “We didn’t want to be the three at all.”
“That was awesome for Cody,” Feltus added. “He delivered.”
It has not been easy for Tenino to piece together wins since spring break was over. It has gone 4-5 over the last nine games and most of the setbacks have been late in the contest and unable to close out victories.
Even in a comeback, the Beavers felt Tuesday was a much-needed win.
“At the end of the day, we don’t care (about) the path,” Schlesser said. “We want to go in feeling good going into districts.”
Tenino had several chances to strike first.
It had runners in scoring position with no outs in the third, but a controversial double play then a strikeout wiped away that momentum. It left a runner 90 feet away in the fourth.
Austin Gonia registered an RBI groundout in the sixth to even the game at one. The top three in the Beavers lineup and their Nos. 8 and 9 hitters accounted for all their hits.
“We were struggling a little bit and at the end, everything came together,” Feltus said.”That is playoff baseball right there.”
Tenino will close the regular season with a non-league game against Shelton on Thursday.
