Thursday's 2A Baseball: Tigers Fend Off Rochester in Regular Season Finale

By the stripes of their pajamas, the Tigers managed to survive another one of their customary late inning scares here at Wheeler Field on Tuesday as the visiting Warriors of Rochester mounted a free falling five-run comeback in the sixth inning. Fortunately for Centralia, they had already scratched out nine runs of their own and wound up escaping with a 9-7 win in their final 2A Evergreen Conference matchup of the regular season.

The win cemented Centralia’s second place finish in the Evergreen Conference and guaranteed them a home game in next week’s district playoffs. During that bumbling fifth inning though, the playoffs must have seemed a million miles away for the Centralia faithful as they wondered if the always adventurous Tiger bullpen could find a way to put out another fire it accidentally started.

“We just can’t get out of our own way sometimes,” laughed Centralia coach Rex Ashmore after the Tigers defense finally managed to secure their 21st out of the game.

Long before Ashmore was laughing comfortably in the outfield, Centralia sent sophomore Jeremy Wood to the mound to start the game. The svelte righty didn’t have his most impressive performance of the year but still managed to pitch 5 ⅓ innings while recording five strikeouts and allowing just three runs.

Ashmore said that sort of blue collar effort is typical for Wood, and the rest of his pitching staff, even when they don’t necessarily have their best stuff on the mound.

“With the kids we’ve got throwing right now, we’ve got a lot of confidence in them and they trust our plan as coaches,” said Ashmore.

After walking the leadoff Rochester batter in the top of the sixth inning, Wood was lifted from pitching duty in favor of Jackson Hull. Breaking the cardinal rule of all relief pitchers Hull, who had a seven-run lead to work with, then proceeded to poor gasoline on a small spark by issuing free passes to the first three batters he faced with two walks and a hit by pitch and wound up forcing in a Rochester run.

A sacrifice-fly from Rochester’s Rylee Sommer then brought in another run, and a base knock by Tyler Soderback loaded up the bases again. A pair of hits and an error later and Rochester again had the bases loaded with the go-ahead run on first base, but Hull was able to freeze Lollar with a backdoor curveball to end the inning with a strikeout.

The misadventures weren’t over for Centralia though as they still had to navigate the seventh frame. After retiring the leadoff batter, Hull walked Bodey Smith and was then lifted from pitching duty for Derek Beairsto. The sophomore right hander retired the first batter he faced but then allowed a single that brought the go-ahead run to the plate before coaxing a flyout to first base to close the book on the rivalry game win, as well as the regular season.

“I was proud of Derek for the way he came in and pounded the zone,” said Ashmore. “He’s pretty even keeled and that can be a good thing in that kind of scenario. He was not at all intimidated to come into that spot.”

After the game, Beairsto said his heart was racing faster before he went in to pitch because he had less control over the situation.

“When we played Black hills last week, the same thing happened where the wheels just came off at the end. So that just kept running through my mind,” explained Beairsto. “It was definitely a big game for us today. We definitely needed a win.”

Beairsto added, “Now I know we get a home playoff game, and we’ve got all the confidence in the world.”

Rochester coach Brad Quarnstrom came away disappointed in the final result but was proud of the way his team competed through the final out of their season.

“That’s one thing that we’ve tried to instill and preach is that no matter what the scoreboard says, all I ask is that they keep fighting,” said Quarnstrom.

Although the Warriors failed to qualify for the playoffs, Quarnstrom felt like his team was just a few fortuitous bounces away from finding their way into districts.

“As we know, baseball is a funny sport,” said Quarnstrom. “Other than Chehalis of course, every game we were right there.”

Quarnstrom noted the season series with Centralia was a particularly tight set of affairs. Prior to Thursday’s barnburner that three game set included a walkoff win for Centralia, and a walkoff win for Rochester on a squeeze bunt.

“I think we’ve kind of rekindled a little bit of a rivalry between the two (teams),” said Quarnstrom.

On Thursday, Centralia’s Wood did all he could to tilt the odds in the Tigers’ favor. Not only did he earn the win on the mound but he also led his team’s offensive output by going 2-3 with four RBIs. That performance included a bases clearing 3-RBI double in the fifth inning that wound up as the difference in the ballgame.

The bottom of the Tigers lineup also came up big in the season finale with seven of their nine runs scored by the bottom third of their lineup.

“When we’re at our best, Nolan (Miller) and Conner (Wasson) at the bottom of the order are finding ways to get on base. Those are two kids that we have that can run and then we get back to (Jeremy) Woody at the top of the order,” noted Ashmore of his plucky lineup. “Our 3, 4, 5 guys didn’t record a hit, so for us to still find a way to score nine runs says a lot about our bottom of the line up guys.”

Quarnstrom also had praise for his players as their season came to an end.

“I thought all year long, our pitchers did a good job of keeping us in the ball game,” said Quarnstrom, who also gave a tip of the cap to his outgoing senior ballplayers. “I thanked them immensely after the game, and I might as well do it in the newspaper as well. They have put in a ton of time not only during the high school season but also in the summer to get better.”

Centralia will host Hockinson next Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. for a district playoff game at Wheeler Field.

Bearcats Blank Black Hills

TUMWATER – W.F. West used the time tested combination of stout defense and a lively offense to propel themselves beyond Black Hills by a score of 10-0 in six innings of 2A Evergreen Conference baseball action here on Thursday.

The Bearcats will host Columbia River at 4:30 on Tuesday for the opening round of the District playoffs.

Daniel Fagerness earned the win for the Bearcats on the mound with three innings of shutout pitching. He was relieved by Gabe O’Neil, who toed the rubber for two innings before turning the ball over to Brock Jones for an inning of flawless relief work. On the day, Bearcats pitchers allowed just six hits while collecting six strikeouts. More importantly perhaps, the Bearcat pitchers refused to issue a free pass to any Wolves’ batters.

W.F. West got on the board right off the bat with two runs in the first inning and then added one run in the second inning, four runs in the third inning, and two runs in the fourth. The Bearcats put the nail in the coffin with their tenth run of the game in the top of the sixth inning to trigger the mercy rule.

Dakota Hawkins was perfect at the plate for W.F. West with three hits in three at bats, three RBIs and two runs scored. Brock Jones was also 3 for 3, scoring three runs and driving in two runs. Nole Wollan added two hits and a pair of runs for the Bearcats.

W.F. West wrapped up their regular season with a spotless 15-0 record in Evergreen Conference play and an overall record of 17-2.