GRESHAM — Centralia College saw their baseball season come to a close here over the weekend with a pair of losses to Columbia Basin. The Hawks took Friday’s contest 6-2 before coming back on Saturday to down the Trailblazers 7-3.
Columbia Basin dominated on the mound on Friday as pitchers Shane Martin and Nicholas Bonnington combined to strike out 11 Blazers. Still, Centralia was able to take a brief lead when Joshua Krause scored Robbie Wall with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth inning.
The Hawks didn’t stay down long though as they answered back with six runs in the bottom half of the fourth frame. Starting pitcher Adrian Stacey didn’t make it out of that decisive inning and wound up surrendering six earned runs on five hits in 3 ⅔ innings of work. Taite Hensley finished the final 4 ⅓ innings on the mound for the Blazers and allowed just one hit and no runs. The Blazers’ pitchers were only able to strike out two Hawks on the day.
Centralia added another run in the fifth inning when catcher Gavin O’Donnell drove in Ethan Hori with a sacrifice fly but that wound up being all the damage the Blazers offense could muster. Colton Titus, Gavin Manheimer, Tysen Paul, Hori and Wall each added one hit to the Blazers’ sparse collection in the loss.
Centralia had a shot at redemption, and a chance to keep their season alive, on Saturday when they faced off with the Hawks again. Unfortunately for the Blazers’ there was no comeback story in the cards.
The Hawks took a 1-0 lead in the first inning before the Blazers added a run of their own in the top of the third frame. However, with help from a trio of Centralia errors the Hawks kept adding on with two runs in each of the fifth, seventh, and eighth innings.
Josh Myer pitched seven innings for Centralia and allowed just two earned runs while striking out seven Hawks. Rory Escuadro pitched the final defensive inning for the Blazers.
Blake Marker led the Blazers’ offense with two hits, including a double and a RBI. Gavin Manheimer also had a double and a RBI to his credit. James Hook drove in the other run for Centralia while Paul and Hori were the only other Blazers’ to collect hits on the day.
Centralia (15-32, 10-15 league) finished fourth in the NWAC West Conference.
