W.F. West faces Ellensburg in the State 2A Baseball semifinals at County Stadium in Yakima, a rematch of the 2017 state championship game.
The Bulldogs won the game 5-1 to claim the title. Ellensburg comes into the contest 20-4 overall and 16-2 in their district. The Bulldogs defeated Sehome, 14-1 and Fife, 7-5, in regionals last weekend to earn a spot in the final four.
W.F. West coach Bryan Bullock believes his team is focused on correcting the mistakes from last year’s championship game.
“I think the kids that are back from last year's team, it’s not just that it's Ellensburg,” Bullock said. “We didn’t feel like we played our best in the championship. We want to put forth our best effort. It just happens to be we’re playing the same team. We want to make sure we leave it all out on the field.”
The Bearcats are rolling into the final four, racking up 22 straight wins since opening the season with two losses at a tournament in Anacortes.
The Bulldogs will be hard pressed to put up a better starter on the mound than W.F. West’s senior ace Brandon White, who gave up two runs on eight hits with nine strikeouts and no walks in a 5-2 win over Ephrata last Saturday at Wheeler Field.
Along with Tyson Guerrero, the Bearcats have two quality starters that will be tough for the final four teams to match.
“We basically have two No. 1’s, two great seasons. The team is very confident when either one of them is on the mound that we have a great chance to win,” Bullock said. “Our pitching staff, we’re fortunate to have a deep staff this year. Whoever is called upon, we expect them to come in and do exactly what they’ve done all year. I know guys will step up.”
If White can pitch at least five innings, recent history suggests Brock Jones would get the call to come in and close the game. Jones came in and finished the game for the Bearcats with a strikeout and a double play against Ephrata and pitched the final three innings against North Kitsap to lock up an 8-6 win.
The bat has been dangerous in the hands of Tyson Guerrero in the playoffs, as he hit a home run in a district championship comeback win over R.A. Long and hit the go ahead 3-run home run against Ephrata.
“We are a team this year without a doubt, one thru nine can swing the bat. Where we’re at and the record we have, the big key for us is putting the ball in play and not striking out,” Bullock said. “We want to make sure their pitches throw lots of pitches and make them play defense.”
The winner of the contest will face the winner of Mountlake Terrace and West Valley (Spokane) on Saturday at 4 p.m. in the championship game, while the losers will face each other at 10 a.m. in the third place game.
After facing adversity in regionals and the district championship to come from behind and earn a win, Bullock is confident his team will respond this weekend if the Bearcats find themselves in a tough situation.
“The way our league schedule went, we weren’t tested very often,” Bullock said. “We’re making sure they understood this is not going to be easy and they’ve answered the bell every time has put a challenge to us.”
