2A Baseball: Tigers Advance to Final Four

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TACOMA — The Tigers came into Saturday’s 2A regional finals needing a win to move on, and didn’t waste any time putting their feet on the basepaths.

Centralia score 9 runs over the first three innings and handed No. 2-ranked Fife a 10-4 loss here at Franklin Pierce High School, advancing to the State 2A Baseball Tournament and securing the best finish for a Tiger baseball squad since 1993.

Jake Sutton worked all seven innings for Centralia, allowing eight hits — seven of which came from the Trojans’ top three batters.

“Once we got through their top four guys, Jake does what he does best,” Centralia coach Rex Ashmore said. “He mixed his pitches, mixed where the threw them and let them get themselves out.”

After Fife’s 2-run top of the third inning tied the game at 3-3, Sutton retired 12 of the next 14 batters he faced. Centralia, meanwhile, packed in 6 runs in the third to blow the game open, highlighted by a 2-run single from Jacob Monohon.

Gavin Kerner went 2 for 4 for the Tigers with a solo home run in the fifth inning. Monohon also finished 2 for 4, and Christian Peters was 3 for 4. Mitch Halbleib was 3 for 4 with two doubles and a pair of RBIs.

The defense, meanwhile, committed just one error.

“Our kids love to play behind him,” Ashmore said of Sutton, “because they know he’s going to throw strikes and they’re going to put the ball in play.”

The win puts Centralia among the final four 2A teams in the state, and into the state tournament Friday and Saturday in Yakima.

The Tigers (17-7) will face Liberty, out of Issaquah, at 7 p.m. on Friday in the State 2A semifinals at Yakima’s County Stadium.

Centralia 6, Archbishop Murphy 5



TACOMA — Archbishop Murphy made it interesting in the seventh inning, but a big play from Drew Fagerness helped Centralia advance out of the first round of regionals with a 6-5 win here Saturday morning.

The Wildcats, trailing 6-2, loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the seventh inning before Fagerness came on in relief of starting pitcher Christian Peters. After an RBI single and a walk, Jake Sutton fielded a ground ball at third and threw the runner out at home.

The next batter up hit an RBI single to cut the lead to 6-5, and Fagerness struck out the next hitter he faced to put the Tigers an out away from advancing.

The Wildcats’ next hitter hit a ground ball down the first base line that spun on the line between fair and foul territory. As the batter ran by Fagerness barehanded the ball and flipped it to Peters, at first, for the final out of the game.

“It was a play a kid probably makes one out of 10 times,” Centralia coach Rex Ashmore said. “The ball was spinning so far, and the kid’s on the line, and the ball’s on the line. He barehanded it and flipped it to him and just barely got him.”

Centralia scored 5 in the first inning, and added what proved to be an important insurance run in the sixth inning on an RBI single from Fagerness.

Gavin Kerner went 2 for 3 with a triple, Peters went 2 for 4 with a 3-run double in the first inning, and Hodges Bailey was 2 for 4 for Centralia.

Centralia had nine hits and left runners on base in the second, fourth, sixth and seventh innings, and left the bases loaded in the fifth.

With Peters pitching, Ashmore added, the Wildcats never threatened until the fifth inning.

“Even the three balls they hit to start the seventh, none of them were hit hard and he still had good velocity,” Ashmore said. “We trust him to finish any time he says he’s good to go, and it was just a situation where it was time to give him a different look. Thankfully we were able to get it done.”