Centralia Tops Grays Harbor in Regular Season Finale

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Down 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Sobe-Toyota score two runs — capped off by Nole Wollan sliding home on a passed ball — to pick up a 5-4 win over Grays Harbor in AAA American Legion baseball action at Ed Wheeler Field on Monday.

Nolan Wasson started off the inning with a walk, followed by an infield single from Wollan. Tyson Guerrero smacked a single up the middle, and a throwing error allowed Wasson to score and tie the game. After two outs Riley Christensen came up to bat, and a passed ball allowed Wollan to score and end the game.

“Yesterday was a tough day for us,” Sobe-Toyota coach Jake LeDuc said. “We lost two games in the bottom of the seventh. They walked off on us. So it was nice to turn the tide today and do it to them.

“That’s a good ball club. They won the league and we played three very good ball games with them,” he added.

Grays Harbor scored a run in the first inning to take the lead. An error cost Sobe-Toyota two runs in the third inning, pushing the Grays Harbor lead to 3-0, and an RBI single by Sawyer Rhoden put Grays Harbor on top 4-0.

Sobe-Toyota got on the board in the top of the fifth, as walks by Drew Forgione and Wasson got the inning started. Guerrero hit a fly ball over the left fielder's head for a two-run triple to put Sobe-Toyota on the board. A single by Holcomb brought in Guerrero to cut the lead to 4-3 after five innings.

Christian Peters got the start for Sobe-Toyota, pitching eight innings and allowing four runs on five hits with seven strikeouts.

Guerrero was the star at the plate for Sobe-Toyota, going 2 for 4 with a triple, two RBIs and a run. Forgione drew three walks.

LeDuc felt the regular season was a success, but knows his team can be even better with the pool play portion of the AAA State Tournament looming.

“It’s always a success when we get to the state tournament, but we’re never satisfied,” LeDuc said. “We ended up finishing third in the division, first time in I don’t know how long we haven’t been in the top two. So there’s definitely work to be done before we get over there to state. It’s a success because we made the state tournament, but now it’s all about what we do there.”

Grays Harbor won the regular-season league title, and LeDuc knew that these last few games against Grays Harbor were going to have a playoff atmosphere to help prepare his team for state.

The state tournament starts Saturday in Yakima and Selah. The tournament has a pool play format to start off, followed by a single elimination tournament, with two teams making it to the regional tournament.

“We’re going to take a couple of days, definitely work on some situational hitting, work on our defense to try to shore that up,” LeDuc said. “This week's focus is going to be big on situational hitting. Yesterday’s ballgames, we had numerous times early in both ball games that we could have scored a lot of runs. Bases loaded, nobody out, and it seemed like we’d come up with one run every time. We’re definitely going to be working on putting the ball in play.”

LeDuc said his team has had solid starting pitching over the last couple weeks leading up to the state tournament, and he knows he is going to need all the arms he has, with the potential for six games in a short amount of time. Peters, Cleary and Spencer Burdick will be the big arms on the mound for Sobe-Toyota, but others will have to step up.

“We need more than the three, four arms … We’re looking at possibly six games to win a state tournament and three arms isn’t going to do that,” LeDuc said. “We’ve thrown some guys that didn’t throw a lot in high school because they didn’t have to just because of how the high school season works. Those guys are going to be the big guys for us … We need all arms to get through that tournament.”

Playing in Selah and Yakima, LeDuc knows the field conditions will be dry, which will affect how his team will play defense.



And when it comes to an expectation for the tournament, LeDuc said the mission is simple: win it all.

“Last year was the first year in a few years we hadn’t gone and won a couple games, but three years previous to that, we had two second places and a third place,” LeDuc said. “We’ve talked about, before I took over as head coach of this team, the goal is to win a state tournament. ...We don’t want second place, we’re going there to win the thing.”

Sunday’s Results

Grays Harbor Sweeps Sobe-Toyota

Grays Harbor earned two wins in the seventh inning against Sobe-Toyota, taking a 4-3 win in the first game and won 12-11 in the nightcap in AAA American Legion baseball action.

In the first game, Sobe-Toyota had a 3-1 lead after six innings. Grays Harbor rallied with three runs in the seventh to take the lead, and held off Sobe-Toyota in the bottom of the inning for the win.

Jacob Cleary pitched a complete game for Sobe-Toyota, allowing five hits and striking out two.

Kolby Steen was 3 for 3 at the plate with a double and a run, and Nolan Wasson was 1 for 1 with three walks and a run.

In the second game, the teams combined for 30 hits and 23 runs.

Grays Harbor had a 6-3 lead after three innings, and led 12-9 going into the seventh inning. Sobe-Toyota scored two runs in the bottom of the inning, but couldn’t complete the comeback, as a line-out to the pitcher with the bases loaded ended the game.

Rob Wall was 1 for 2 with two walks and two runs. Christian Peters was 2 for 4 for Sobe-Toyota.

Saturday’s Results

Portland Tops Sobe-Toyota

Portland’s five-run first inning propelled them past Centralia Sobe-Toyota 6-3 on Saturday in AAA Legion Baseball action.

Sobe-Toyota also scored a run in the first inning, making it 5-1 after one inning. Portland added a run in the third for insurance. Sobe-Toyota scored two runs in the ninth, but couldn’t continue a rally as Portland took the victory.

Nolan Wasson was 2 for 3 with a walk and two runs for Sobe-Toyota.