KENNEWICK — The Twin City 14s had plenty of monkeys to get off their back. They had lost to Hazel Dell Metro on Saturday 20-3 in pool play. They had lost to the same team last year in the 13-year-old state tournament. They wanted revenge in Sunday’s championship game of the 14-year-old Southern Washington Babe Ruth State Tournament.
And they got just that.
Twin Cities downed Hazel Dell Metro 9-3 in the state title game on Sunday, riding the arm of Dakota Hawkins for seven innings in the victory. Hawkins struck out 12 and allowed just six hits in seven innings of work.
"On Saturday when we lost to them, we figured that a slower pitcher with a lot of junk pitches was key and Dakota fit that mold," Twin Cities coach Travis Gonia said. "He's played a lot of baseball this summer and we kind of saved his arm during pool play for this exact situation."
The Centralia-Chehalis combo squad backed up their pitcher by jumping out to 4-0 lead in the first inning. They added another run in the third frame and had a 3-run rally in the fourth inning. Nat Lopez was 2 for 2 with two doubles while Max Miller also had 2 hits in the game. Broc Selstrom added three hits to Twin Cities' efforts.
"In the top half of the first, scoring those 4 runs really helped set the tone on the mound for Dakota," Gonia said. "He could pitch with confidence knowing he had support offensively. Our defense played great; there were no errors in that game. It was a complete team win and a lot of the credit goes to Dakota being able to go seven innings."
Earlier Sunday, Twin Cities got another stellar pitching performance from Eric Cervantes to advance to the state championship game. Cervantes pitched six innings in a 12-2 victory over Camas-Washougal.
"After the 20-3 beating we took on Saturday, it was good to see us regroup and learn from the mistakes we made," Gonia said. "We had a strategy to put all our weight into one player and save pitching for the championship game."
Twin Cities wasted little time jumping on Camas-Washougal, scoring 5 runs in the second inning and then 4 in the sixth inning to close things out. Kevin Clevenger was 2 for 3 with a double while Bryce Dobyns was also 2 for 3.
That took the sour taste out of a 20-3 loss to Hazel Dell Metro on Saturday in Twin Cities' last game of pool play.
"We knew we could potentially face them again in the championship game," Gonia said. "That was probably the most we've ever learned from one game."
Twin Cities was held to just four hits, but after the loss the team had a meeting to discuss the setback.
"We told the kids, this is baseball and either the team is going to learn from mistakes and prevail or the past is going to haunt them," Gonia said. "The kids came out with a little more fire and it started off against Camas-Washougal. In the championship game, We just wanted to prove to that team how much better we could play."
Twin Cities will now play in the Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament in Whitefish, Mont., beginning on July 30. The eight-team tournament will have two pools of four and the top two teams in each pool will advance to bracket play. Twin Cities is slated to leave next Monday.
Note: In 13-year-old Southern Washington Babe Ruth State Tournament action, Twin Cities beat Richland, 6-5, and Mount St. Helens beat Longview, 7-4, on Saturday in pool play. Twin Cities finished third in pool play and moved on to the tournament semifinals, where it beat Camas-Washougal 12-10 in the tournament semifinals, but lost 15-5 to Longview in the state championship game.
