Weekend Summer Baseball: I-5 Toyota Claims Subway Classic Crown

I-5 Toyota/Mountain Dew was able to win their final three games of the John R. Roberts Memorial Subway Classic tournament to capture the title at Wheeler Field in Centralia over the weekend.

On Friday, I-5 Toyota played their worst game of the tournament, falling to Hanford 11-0 in six innings. Sawyer Burdick started on the mound for the home team and Max Taylor, Brit Lusk, Bodey Smith and Jackson Hull all pitched in relief.

Taylor recorded the only hit of the game for I-5 Toyota.

Hanford scored two runs in the first and one run in the second and fourth innings before piling on five runs in the fifth to put the game away for good.

In Saturday’s contest, I-5 Toyota bounced back from that loss with a 12-6 win over the Northwest Stars. Cole Wintrip earned the start on the mound and was relieved by fellow Rochester teammate Nolan Eyles in the sixth inning.

At the plate, Teegan Zillyet had three hits and four RBI and Luke Bennett had two hits including a double and tallied three RBI.

I-5 Toyota started off strong, scoring one run in the first inning and plating four runs in the second and third innings to pull away for good. The home team piled up 16 hits in the victory.

I-5 Toyota was the number three seed out of pool play and faced Hanford in the semifinals, exacting some revenge with a 17-3 win in five innings. Drew Rose started on the mound for I-5 Toyota and Bodey Smith relieved Rose in the fifth inning to close out the game.

Zillyet had two doubles and Max Taylor added three hits. Eli Brown hit three doubles and Bennett chipped in three hits including a double. I-5 Toyota had eight doubles in the game.

I-5 Toyota wasted no time by scoring five runs in the first inning. The home team added four runs in the second inning, three runs in the third and pushed across five more runs in the fourth inning to end the game early.

“It was a pretty good offensive game with 16 hits in four innings. We really hit the ball,” I-5 Toyota coach Tommy Grunenfelder said.

In the championship game, I-5 Toyota faced off with Black Hills. Eli Brown pitched a complete game for the host team in a 5-1 win to earn the tournament crown.

Brown allowed one run on five hits with one walk and four strikeouts, throwing just 91 pitches in the first complete game performance of the season for I-5 Toyota.

Taylor, Brown and Hull each had two hits as I-5 Toyota collected 11 hits in the title game.

The tournament hosts scored two runs in the first inning and scored one run in the second inning for a 3-0 lead. I-5 Toyota tacked on one run in the fifth and seventh innings to secure the title.

“The last three games, we played really well. We hit the ball, it was nice being in a tournament situation and win two games, win one to stay alive and in this case to win a championship,” Grunenfelder said. “We played 12 innings of great baseball, played great defense and pitched well. It was a really good weekend for us. You want to win every tournament you’re in. The kids are pretty excited. It was a lot of fun.”

Grunenfelder highlighted the play at the plate of Zillyet, Taylor and Brown. He also noted the bottom of the lineup was able to come through for I-5 Toyota and make some things happen to push runs across.

I-5 Toyota will take on Kelso at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in a single game at Wheeler Field.

Note: During the tournament, a moment of silence was held for Rick Elam.