TOLEDO — The Titans rallied to win the nightcap, but Toledo’s 6-1 win in Game 1 secured second place in the Central 2B League baseball standings for the Indians — as well as the opportunity to host their first playoff game.
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley bounced back to win Game 2, 2-0, and the Titans will head to the District 4 2B Baseball Tournament this weekend with the No. 4 seed.
Toledo’s pitching quartet of Wes Kuzminsky, Connor Vermilyea, Dakota Robins and Dalton Yoder combined to hold Pe Ell-Willapa Valley to five hits in the opener while striking out three and walking two.
Yoder, Robins and Grant McEwen each had two hits, with Robins and Austin Eaton each driving in 2 runs. Konner Crawford went 3 for 3 with a double.
Red Arrington went 2 for 2 for PWV, and Austin Smith drove in the Titans’ lone run.
Arrington threw the complete-game shutout for PWV in Game 2, striking out two and allowing five hits without walking a batter. He drove in a run in the fifth inning with a single, while Jason Fluke went 3 for 3 for PWV and drove in the Titans’ first run with a single in the third inning.Tyler Shepherd was 1 for 2 for the Titans.
Yoder had two hits for Toledo in Game 2.
Toledo (15-5, 14-4 league) will open district play on Saturday at home. Wahkiakum, the C2BL’s No. 6 team, will take on the Pacific 2B League’s No. 3 team — either Rainier or Northwest Christian — at noon in a loser-out play-in game in Toledo on Saturday, with the winner sticking around to play the Indians at 3 p.m. in the first round.
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley (15-5, 13-5 league) finished in a tie with Adna for third place, though the Pirates swept the teams’ regular season doubleheader and thus hold the tiebreaker, putting PWV in fourth. The Titans will head to Tacoma on Saturday for a noon game against Ilwaco, the No. 5 team from the P2BL. The winner will face host and P2BL champion Life Christian at 3 p.m. in the first round.
Cardinals Sweep Onalaska
ONALASKA — Both Onalaska and Winlock saved their best baseball of the season for the end. The newly-minted Winlock Cardinals posted their first sweep as a program by scores of 1-0 and 13-12 and wrapped up their maiden voyage with a four-win season.
“We had a lot of folks asking if we’re gonna have a team and what was that team was gonna look like,” Winlock coach Scott Weinert said. “I’m pleased with where we started this season — where we’re finishing and overall the direction we’re taking.”
The twinbill began with an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel as Wyatt Dean went the distance for the Cardinals, allowing just two hits, striking out seven and picking up the 1-0 victory for his team.
“It was a really clean baseball game for both teams,” Onalaska coach Kyle Smaciarz said. “1-0 is going to be good stuff, there wasn’t a lot of walks and both pitchers were very effective with their pitch counts.”
Onalaska ace Cody Hamrick also went the distance, striking out 10. The Cardinals scored the winning and only run of the game — in true baseball fashion — in the first inning on a Derek Chilcoate RBI ground-rule double.
“Wyatt did a good job keeping us off-balance,” Smaciarz said. “We didn’t hit many balls hard and they played solid defense behind him.”
While the first game was a pitchers’ duel, the second was a slugfest as Winlock jumped out to a big lead early, weathered a rally by the Loggers then had a late surge of their own to win 13-12.
“When Onalaska’s bats were heating up, that’s a point where you want to look at kids and know they’re not gonna hang their heads,” Weinert said. “And they stepped up to the challenge.”
The Cardinals exploded for an early 9-0 lead after two and a half innings. At the plate they were led by Zach Weinert’s 3 for 4 performance with 3 RBI. Chilcoate had two hits and an RBI, while Brady Steveson drove in a run and Dean finished with two RBI.
Onalaska didn’t go away quietly, and after scoring a run in the third, they added 5 runs in the fifth and 6 runs in the sixth. Hamrick finished the game with three hits, four RBI and two doubles while teammate Zach Caldwell had a 2-run double and Jack Beck added two hits and 2 RBIs.
“I was proud of our guys fighting back,” Smaciarz said. “We finally were getting after it at plate and it was a fun day for baseball.”
Jack Beck came in to pitch for the Loggers in the fourth inning and kept the Cardinals off the board until the seventh inning. By that time, Winlock was looked at 12-9 deficit with just three outs to work with.
“He really gave us a chance to come back,” Smaciarz said.
In the top of the seventh, Winlock rallied with 4 runs, including Chase Miller’s sac fly for the go-ahead run. In the bottom of the frame, Onalaska loaded the bases, but couldn’t get any across in their second loss of the day.
“We got better every week, that was our goal,” Weinert said of his team. “I wanted our kids to be at their pinnacle by this time of year and I felt like we did that tonight. We played some really good baseball with Onalaska. Both teams had fight and were competitive.”
The Cardinals (4-16, 4-14 league) wrap up their season, while Onalaska (2-17, 1-17 league) will play at nonleague foe Lake Quinault on Friday to wrap up the season.
