VANCOUVER — The Bearcats built a big early lead and withstood a rally from Prairie here Friday for a 5-4 win in nonleague action.
W.F. West scored all five of its runs in the first three innings, with an RBI double from Hayden Dobyns, a two-run single by Brody Holcomb and RBI singles from Tyson Guerrero and Dakota Hawkins.
Prairie, though, plated four runs in the fifth inning to keep things interesting, but Blake Wichert came on in relief for Hawkins and didn’t allow a run over the last two innings to get the save.
“The defense kind of let him down, and gave them a couple extra outs,” Bearcat coach Bryan Bullock said. “And then Blake did an excellent job of coming in in the sixth and seventh and throwing strikes, and the defense responded behind him and made some nice plays.”
Hawkins struck out four in five innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs.
Dobyns finished 2 for 3 for W.F. West, and Nole Wollan went 2 for 4. W.F. West tallied 10 hits as a team.
“We’ve got some guys putting together some quality at-bats, and now we just need to string them together,” Bullock said. “We still stranded eight guys on base, and had some more RBI opportunities that we need to take advantage of.”
The Bearcats (12-5, 7-1 league) host rival Centralia on Monday to close out their Evergreen 2A Conference schedule. The game will also serve as Tom Zuber Night, with a ceremony scheduled to recognize the longtime Bearcat baseball coach.
Tigers Fall Behind Early in Loss to Kelso
The Tigers gave up six in the second inning and never recovered, in a 12-3 loss to Kelso on Friday in nonleague action at Ed Wheeler Field.
Kelso, which had two hits in the second inning, benefited from five walks.
“Things got out of hand very early,” Centralia coach Rex Ashmore said. “We need to find a way to compete a little bit better when things aren’t going well, find a way to keep playing.”
Christian Peters went 2 for 3 for the Tigers, and Riley Christensen was 2 for 4.
For Kelso, Yancy Bird went 4 for 5 with an RBI. River Liepa was 3 for 6 with two RBIs.
The Hilanders outhit the Tigers 10-8.
“We didn’t compete very well after that, Ashmore said. “We ended up walking nine and hit four more, and then you combine six errors in that mess.”
Centralia (9-8, 4-4 in Evergreen 2A Conference) plays Garfield today at 3p.m. in Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.
Loggers Hammer Twin Valley Twice
ONALASKA — The Loggers went to work here Friday in a nonleague twinbill with Twin Valley, crushing the Wolfpack 29-1 and 22-2 in 10 total innings of baseball.
A.J. Volk lead off the first inning with a homer in Game 1, and Trace Lawrence added a three-run shot a few batters later. Onalaska tallied 14 runs in the third frame, and made the most of 13 errors by the Wolfpack.
Jack Beck, Kyle Trulson and Zach Huffman were all 2 for 4 for the Loggers. Volk started on the mound and struck out four in two innings of work without giving up a hit.
The nightcap was more of the same. Roberto Patraca hit a three-run first-inning homer, Jack Beck hit a double and Tanner McLean was 1 for 2 for the Loggers.
Beck struck out two and faced just six batters in two innings to start the game, and Cole Christensen added four strikeouts over the next two innings for Onalaska.
“We hit the ball. We made decent contact, and everybody got to play,” Logger coach Rocky Stanley said.
Onalaska (3-15, 1-15 league) closes out the season with a Central 2B League doubleheader at Winlock on Tuesday.
