Following a shaky start to the final chapter in their championship quest on Saturday the Toledo Indians shook themselves, gathered their wits, and laid claim to a prize many of them have been working toward since their Little League days.
After falling behind 1-0 in the second inning, Toledo trailed until the fourth frame and didn’t sniff a lead until the bottom of the sixth inning. Once the Tribe grabbed the lead, though, they never looked back until they emerged from a celebratory dogpile with a 4-1 victory over Pe Ell-Willapa Valley in hand and a State 2B championship in their collective back pocket.
That result was long in doubt, though, as things went weird for the Tribe from the get go in the championship tilt.
In the first inning it looked like the Tribe might get out of the gate quickly when leadoff man Jackson Kuzminsky singled off of PWV ace Red Arrington. Two batters later a chopper to third base from his brother, Wes Kuzminsky, led to one of the stranger double plays a baseball fan will ever witness. Catching the Toledo speedster too far off base PWV threw behind Jackson and used two throws to tag him out near second base. Wes Kuzminsky wisely advanced to second base during the rundown, but then things got really weird. As the PWV defense walked away to reset on the diamond the elder Kuzminsky broke for third in an attempt to catch the Titans sleeping. Making an evasive, and wide, slide into third Kuzminsky was initially ruled safe before an umpire’s conference concluded that he had left the baseline during the slide and he was subsequently called out. The play went down officially as a 5-4-1-5 double play and ended Toledo’s inaugural turn at bat in deflating fashion.
Seizing on that momentum PWV put their first batter of the second inning, Dalton Toepelt, on base with the help of a Toledo error. Trevor Cook promptly laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Toepelt to second base and Ryan Shepherd drove a one ball and two strike pitch into centerfield to plate his teammate and notch an early 1-0 lead for the Titans.
Coming off a high-stress relief appearance the day before against Toutle Lake, Red Arrington looked comfortable in the early going and sat down the Indians in order for the first three innings. A leadoff walk to Kolton Korpi in the bottom of the fourth left the door open a crack for Toledo though and that was all the invitation Toledo needed. With Korpi on first Wes Kuzminsky laid down a sacrifice bunt to move his teammate into scoring position. The next batter, Dalton Yoder, hit a long fly ball to center field that allowed Korpi to tag up and advance to third base. Then with two outs and two strikes, Dakota Robins smacked a single up the middle to knot the game at one all.
With each team still leaning on their ace pitchers the game appeared destined for extra innings but the Indians had other plans. Wes Kuzminsky got the best of a battle of starting pitchers to start the bottom of the sixth inning when he slapped a hard single up the middle. In the ensuing at-bat Yoder dropped a textbook bunt, his first of the season, down the third base line to move Kuzminsky to second base. The next batter, Robins, singled sharply to right field and it seemed for a moment that Kuzminsky might score but he was held up at third base after a hard, wide turn. With runners at the corners Alex Bacon stepped into the box and promptly fell behind 0-2 in the count thanks to a failed bunt attempt and a swinging foul ball. Unphased, Bacon barreled up a chest level pitch for a single into the leftfield gap that scored Kuzminsky and netted Toledo the lead. Connor Vermilyea singled in the following at bat to load the bases and then with two outs Kyle Bauter stroked a two RBI single of his own to give Toledo the decisive 4-1 lead.
“I’m not going to lie, I was pretty nervous,” said Bacon of the at-bat that wound up plating the go-ahead run for Toledo. Entering the at bat Bacon was 0-2 on the day and he said he didn’t want to pop up again. Despite the nerves, Bacon knew he needed to step up to the plate both literally and figuratively in order to bring his team to life.
“I don’t want to be cocky or anything but I think my hit really sparked us. Once we got that run on the board it was like, alright, that wasn’t so hard,” Bacon said.
Bacon noted that his familiarity with the PWV ace Red Arrington, honed over a decade-plus of youth baseball, helped to calm his nerves.
“We’ve had the privilege of growing up and playing Red,” said Bacon. “It’s no wonder that we wound up running into him here.”
Despite the three-run lead heading into the final frame the excitement was not over in the 2B title game. Coming off a three-inning effort on Friday in the semifinals versus Asotin, Kuzminsky seemed to hit a wall in the seventh inning. The control that had served him so well all year had vanished. After striking out the first batter of the inning Kuzminsky surrendered a single to Ryan Shepherd and then went to a full count on Johnny Woods before a borderline neighborhood play at second base resulted in an error and left PWV with runners at first and second and the tying run represented in the batter at the plate.
It was then that Toledo turned to their old standby and unofficial king of jesters, Connor “Corndog” Vermilyea, to slam the door.
“We call him The Janitor because he comes in and cleans up,” said Bacon of his affable teammate.
Living up to his secondary nickname, Vermilyea coaxed PWV into back-to-back flyouts to center field, the last of which Bacon caught in sliding fashion to seal the game. Then the celebration was on.
“I was just laughing the whole time. I get put in these situations and I just laugh,” said Vermilyea. “I thought Wes was going to do it all. A day off from pitching for me is like a day on the couch at first base. I love it. I was hoping he would go the whole way, but hey, I’ll do it.”
Kuzminsky wound up the winning pitcher on the day, allowing just one run in 6 ⅓ innings work while striking out four Titans and walking none.
Toledo’s catcher, Jackson Kuzminsky, said it was like second nature catching his brother in the championship game.
“It wasn’t that hard of a game to catch for Wesley because he was keeping things up in the zone,” said Jackson. “It was just like playing catch back there.”
The younger Kuzminsky added that Wes’s fastball and curveball were working well on the day but his slider was iffy at best. In the end, it didn’t matter.
“Today he didn’t really need it,” noted Jackson.
Toledo coach Jeff Davis called Wes Kuzminsky “an unusual case,” for his ability to handle a large workload on the mound. Davis noted he had concern early on about pitching Kuzminsky so many innings but the senior regularly throws long innings for his summer baseball team, and more importantly, he wants the ball when it matters.
“He’s like, ‘Coach, I’ve always done this,’” said Davis.
Kuzminsky, the catcher, said he had no worries when his coach made the switch from Wes to Vermilyea to close out the game.
“Connor, I think he’s probably one of the funner pitchers to catch because he’s loose up there and just wants to have fun. Whatever you call he’s just going to throw it. He’s not really going to argue with you very much.”
Wes echoed that confidence in Corndog the closer, saying, “I figured he would come in and do it.”
Still drying off after his postgame victorious water-bucket soaking, coach Davis said, “I’m ecstatic. It was kind of like a roller coaster.”
He added that PWV was a quality opponent, typical of what Central 2B League baseball brings to the table day in and day out.
“I think the top six teams in the league, on any given day, anybody can win,” said Davis. “Our league is tough state competition.”
With two local team in the title tilt Centralia’s Wheeler Field was jam packed with local baseball crazies. Half of those fans went home disappointed and the other half lingered around the field in a haze of ecstasy after the final out.
“It’s pretty awesome to see the town rally behind us,” said Wes Kuzminsky.
“Our town really travels well,” added Bacon. “Everybody always says one we make the playoffs every light in town goes out.”
For Pe Ell-Willapa Valley, Ryan Shepherd went 2 for 3 with an RBI and Dustin Lusk went 1 for 3 with a double. Dalton Toepelt scored the Titans’ only run.
Dakota Robins went 2 for 3 with one RBI for Toledo, while Wes Kuzminsky went 1 for 3 with one RBI and Kyle Bauter went 2 for 3 with two RBI.
“It was great coaching these guys,” said Toledo skipper Jeff Davis, who noted the team will lose a key core of players to graduation before next season. “They’re a crazy bunch of kids. I love them.”
