2B Baseball: Ritzman Closes Out PWV's 8-7 Win Over Napavine for District Title

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MOSSYROCK — Trevor Ritzman was given a new nickname — “The Closer” — on Thursday.

He lived up to it on Saturday.

Ritzman, Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s stocky, bearded short-relief pitcher, got the final two outs in a pressure-packed situation to help the Titans to an 8-7 win over Napavine in the District 4 2B championship game.

“I was nervous. Shaking,” Ritzman said, of entering the game. “I didn’t know what to think. I just thought I had the defense behind me, and I had to throw like I throw.”

He entered the game in the midst of a Tiger rally, with a 2-run lead, one out and runners on second and third — just two days after pitching 1 ⅔ innings of scoreless relief in PWV’s 11-inning semifinal win over Toledo.

“I knew he had it, just like the game before,” PWV catcher Kaelin Jurek said. “I knew he was going to shut them down, and he did.”

The Central 2B League champion Tigers got a sacrifice fly from Cole Doughty on Ritzman’s second pitch, cutting the lead to 8-7 with two outs. Julian Rodriguez then hit a full-count ground ball down the third-base line, where PWV’s Dustin Lusk snagged it and threw to first for the final out.

“I was thinking, ‘Let it go foul. Let it go foul — Oh! Yes!” Ritzman said. “I didn’t know what to think.”

The ball started off in fair territory, but appeared to take a bounce toward the PWV dugout before Lusk gloved it.

“I was kind of surprised the kid came up and fielded it. I thought it was going to go foul, and when he came up and fielded it, I thought, ‘Gosh, we’re going to get that guy on,’” Napavine coach Brian Demarest said. “And it just didn’t work that way. That’s baseball.”

Lusk — who drew the game-winning hit-by-pitch in the Titans’ semifinal win — had come up big on the offensive end just a few minutes earlier.

The Titans finally got to Napavine starter Nate Rodriguez in the seventh inning, starting the frame off with a hit batter and a walk to bring on reliever Tanner Dekoker. A sacrifice bunt and a walk loaded the bases with one out, and Lusk’s RBI single gave PWV its first lead of the game. The Tigers’ lone error brought in another run and kept the bases juiced, and the ensuing walk and hit batter gave the Titans an 8-4 lead heading into the final half-inning.

Napavine, back against the wall, rallied in the bottom of the seventh. Sam Fagerness drew a walk, and a one-out walk to Brady Woodrum and a single by Wyatt Stanley loaded the bases.

Kaleb Sisson’s single scored a run, and a bobbled ball in the outfield gave Woodrum’s courtesy runner, Mason Butler, just enough space to score, cutting PWV’s lead to 8-6.

“Smith threw a heck of a game,” PWV coach Hal Arrington said. “The strike zone was really tight, both ways. He didn’t want to come out of the ballgame, but it was time for him to come out.”

Smith worked 6 ⅓ innings, gave up six hits and 3 earned runs, walked seven and struck out three in a 131-pitch outing.

“The Smith kid threw great,” Demarest said. “He kept us off-balance, and he hit his spots.”

The win gives the Titans a district title in the first year of the Pe Ell-Willapa Valley baseball combination.

“It’s pretty sweet,” Jurek said. “We’ve never done it before, and we just met all of them, and we’re playing pretty well together.”

Willapa Valley hadn’t offered baseball prior to the schools opting to combine for diamond sports — and football — last summer.

“It’s really exciting for the first year of the Titans,” Ritzman said. “No one would have thought we’d be here.”

Pe Ell-Willapa Valley will be back in Mossyrock on Saturday for the regional playoffs, with a 1 p.m. game against Life Christian Academy.

“It feels good. We’re coming back to where we’ve won all our games so far,” Ritzman said. “I think we’ve got a good chance.”

The winner will play again at 4 p.m. against the Toledo/Wilbur-Creston winner, with a spot in the State 2B final four in Centralia on the line.



“It’s pretty exciting,” Jurek said. “We’re four games away from the state championship, and that’s what we’re shooting for.”

The Titans beat Life Christian, 6-4, on May 9 in the first round of the district tournament in Tacoma.

“I’d really like to go see some other teams. I’m getting tired of playing the same teams all the time, and I’m sure they are too,” Arrington said with a laugh, “but yeah, we’re happy to be here.”

Napavine led 3-0 after the first inning, scoring 3 unearned runs after a high fly ball dropped a few feet in front of home plate and Kaleb Sisson hit a bases-loaded triple. Doughty’s RBI single in the third inning gave the Tigers a 4-0 lead.

“We just got 4 runs on the board and went into cruise control the rest of the game,” Demarest said, “until it got pressure time. It’s on us. It’s on our bats.”

The Titans crawled back, with an RBI single from Blake Moore in the fourth, an RBI double by Jurek in the fifth and an RBI double by Johnny Woods and an RBI single from Chase Flemetis in the sixth to tie things up and set the stage for the final frame.

Jurek and Lusk each had two hits for PWV, while Stanley and Sisson each had two hits for Napavine.

The Tigers turned four double plays in the game, none of which followed the same script. Third baseman Jensen Lindsay snagged a line drive and stepped on third to double up a runner in the first; right fielder Julian Rodriguez caught a shallow fly ball and threw out a runner headed home in the third; a 6-4-3 double play ended the fourth; and a line shot to second baseman Sam Fagerness, who then flipped the ball to twin brother Mac at shortstop, ended a bases-loaded situation in the seventh.

Nate Rodriguez got the start on the mound and worked into the seventh, striking out three, walking three and allowing seven hits.

“Defensively, we played sharp. That’s what we talked about going in, that we’ve got to play good defense and hit the ball,” Demarest said. “We played good defense behind him; we just didn’t hit the ball like we needed to.”

Doughty, a senior and the Tigers’ No. 1 starter during the regular season, will be unavailable to pitch the rest of the playoffs with an arm injury. Stanley, the Tigers’ No. 2 pitcher, strained a muscle in Napavine’s first-round win over Toutle Lake and is scheduled to be evaluated by a doctor on Monday. Jensen Lindsay, the Tigers’ No. 3 starter, pitched into the sixth inning on Thursday in a semifinal win over Adna.

“If you’d have told me last night that we’d walk in here and our No. 5 pitcher would have thrown seven innings, I’d be really happy,” Demarest said. “Nate came out and threw a heck of a game. For a kid that’s got like an inning and a half of varsity time this year, he came out and did an awesome job.”

Napavine (18-4) will take on Liberty Bell (15-8) at 10 a.m. on Saturday in Anacortes in the regional playoffs. The winner will take on either Adna or La Conner at 4 p.m., with the winner advancing to the State 2B final four in Centralia.

“You’d rather drive 35 minutes down the road to Mossyrock than go to Anacortes, but you look at the bracket, and we like our chances,” Demarest said. “We’re a good team when we play good, and we’re just glad to be in it.”

Toledo Holds Off Adna for Third

MOSSYROCK — Toledo’s second extra-inning game in three days turned out a bit better than the first.

Grant McEwen scored on a bunt from Austin Eaton in the top of the 10th inning, and relief pitcher Jackson Kuzminsky closed out the game to give the Indians a 4-3 win over Adna in the third/fourth place game of the District 4 2B Baseball Tournament here on Saturday.

Toledo (18-6) will be back in Mossyrock on Saturday to face Wilbur-Creston in regionals at 10 a.m.

Adna (18-7) will head to Anacortes on Saturday to take on La Conner in a 1 p.m. regional contest.

Adna tied the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs, Tyson Gray reached on an error, moved to second on a wild pitch, took third on a single from Spencer Burdick and headed home on the throw to second trying to nail Burdick.

Burdick then took third on a wild pitch to David Young and scored when Young’s grounder to third was misplayed. The game would stay tied at 3-3 until the top of the 10th inning.

Gray, Burdick and Wes Wilson each had two hits for Adna, while McEwen was 4 for 4 with 2 RBIs for Toledo. Eaton also went 2 for 2 and knocked in 2 runs for the Indians.

Dakota Robins pitched the seventh, eighth and ninth innings for Toledo to record the win, striking out three and walking two while allowing one hit.