Lynden's Jordan Wittenberg (24) slide safe into home plate as Centralia's Chase Eveninger looks for the ball during the third inning in the 2A state tournament on Saturday morning May 21, 2016, at Joe Martin Field in Bellingham, Wash. Lynden defeated Centralia 8 to 1 to advance.
BELLINGHAM — A rough first inning was too much for the Tigers to overcome here Saturday.
Lynden took advantage of four walks and two errors to plate six runs and never looked back in an 8-1 win to eliminate the defending State 2A champions in the first round of the regional playoffs.
Riley Christensen and Garrett Hicks each had two hits for Centralia, which scored its lone run in the sixth inning but, prior to that, couldn’t advance a runner to second base.
The Lions, meanwhile, turned five double plays.
“Their double plays kind of took care of anything we could put together,” Tiger coach Rex Ashmore said. “They’re a solid baseball team and didn’t make mistakes.”
Centralia, meanwhile, committed four errors in the loss and finished the season with a 13-12 record.
“The things that led to our 3-9 (regular season) finish kind of all came together in that first inning,” Ashmore added. “We were never able to recover from it.”
It was the last game for Centralia seniors Christensen, Hicks, Nolan Wasson, Christian Peters, Fletcher Brown, Sak Alexander, Chase Evinger, Kieran Bredeson, Joe Finch and Cody Parker.
“They obviously mean a lot to the entire coaching staff, and they’ve just made a great impact on Centralia baseball in general,” Ashmore said. “I couldn’t be more proud of what they’ve meant to me and our coaches.”
Ashmore also thanked his staff of assistant coaches for their work.
“Without them nothing we’ve accomplished would have been possible,” he said. “We joke about it all the time, but I have a great coaching staff.”
