Centralia Defense Outstanding

Ramona Lorton was something else on the mound in Centralia's championship game with W.F. West Thursday. But, boy, let me tell you — that Tiger defense was something else as well.

At third base, Krista Church was a flat-out vacuum. Talk about hot corner. She was stabbing at and coming up with some seriously hot shots down the third base line. She made every play, too. The lone base hit W.F. West had in the game was an infield hit to her, but she still fielded the ball cleanly.

To her left, Tiger shortstop Lauren Liseth backed up Lorton on a couple of strange grounders back to the circle. One of the dribblers slipped right past Lorton, with Liseth coming through with a saving play.

After that particular incident, Lorton shared some laughs because she didn't (or just barely) touched the grounder as it went past her.

Then there was catcher Jordan Scherer. She made a play in front of the plate and threw the runner out trying to reach first base ... from her knees. Centralia coach Ken Olson's eyes widened a bit when he recalled that play. It was a dandy of a throw.

With the District IV 2A Softball Tournament just around the corner — it runs Thursday-Friday — how vital will defense be to the Tigers and W.F. West? They both feature good pitchers, but just how well can the pitchers pitch without a solid 'D' behind them?

It will be interesting to see this coming week.

Pehl Putting Up Monstrous Numbers

W.F. West freshman Robert Pehl is now 6-0 with an ERA in the realm of 2.00 after throwing six innings of shutout baseball against R.A. Long Wednesday at Ed Wheeler Field.

He also went 3 for 3 at the plate with a three-run homer and is now batting around .530 for the season. That, folks, is fun.

Consider the following mere fun as well. Pehl is playing ball, enjoying himself and doing well. That's what it's all about.

The names mentioned below should not be taken as a comparison directly to Pehl, but just a fun way to look at his great numbers this year.

So, without anymore backing into it, take a look at this list of top high school athletes compiled by SI.com:

Tim Beckham, SS, Griffin H.S. -- He batted .512 with six home runs and 36 RBIs and is expected to be a top 5 pick in the MLB Draft.

Eric Hosmer, 1B, American Heritage H.S. -- He batted .380 with 25 runs, 20 RBIs, nine homers and 10 stolen bases. He is expected to be a top 10 pick in the MLB Draft.

Kyle Skipworth, C, Patriot H.S. -- He batted .422 with 32 runs scored, eight home runs and 45 RBIs and is expected to be a top 15 pick in the MLB Draft.

Aaron Hicks, OF, Wilson H.S. -- He batted .370 with 46 runs scored, one homer, 21 RBIs and 44 stolen bases.

Centralia Soccer Team's Melting Pot

I had the pleasure of talking with 12 players on the Centralia boys soccer team Monday afternoon. Talk about a diverse, fun group.

When I wasn't talking with the players, I hung around and snapped a few photos. So, please enjoy these shots of the Centralia soccer team melting pot, which will take on Ridgefield at Ridgefield Tuesday in the first round of the playoffs. (Click to enlarge the photos).

District Baseball Extra: Google Fight!

We strive to be objective and balanced in the newspaper business. That's a key reason why I'm not about to throw out a bunch of subjective guesses as to which teams will come out on top at the district tournaments, which start Tuesday.

Now, I'm all for fun pools and taking stabs at who might go the distance. Think March Madness or the Super Bowl. That's fun stuff. But when it comes to sprouting off opinions on why a high school baseball team will win or lose, I'm not really into that.

And that, ah hem, is why I will introduce you all to Google Fights, the sure-fire way to find out the results of the 2A, 1A and 2B district tournaments.

In a Google Fight, you enter in two words or phrases to find out how many 'hits' -- how often it appears on the Internet -- that word or phrase gets. The one with more hits wins.

OK, so they may not be 100% accurate, but... Here's your first-round results:


District 4 2A Tournament:
CENTRALIA vs. MARK MORRIS: The Tigers put a whoopin' on Mark Morris here, receiving 3,480,000 hits to 1,020,000.

W.F. WEST vs. HOCKINSON: This was one of the closer matches, with the Bearcats edging Hockinson, 304,000 to 86,400.


District 4 1A Tournament:
TENINO vs. WHITE SALMON: The Beavers were downed by White Salmon, but not by a large margin- - 744,000 to 390,000.

TOLEDO vs. ROCHESTER: In a battle of Google Fight powerhouses, Toledo overcame Rochester 64,900,000 to 52,400,000.


2B District Tournament:
ADNA vs. NAPAVINE: This ended up being quite one-sided, as the Pirates crushed the Tigers, 4,750,000 to 244,000.

WHITE PASS vs. OCOSTA: Yeah, so I used the word "crushed" in the paragraph above. Should have saved that one. White Pass: 10,700,000; Ocosta: 55,100. Enough said.

MOSSYROCK vs. TACOMA BAPTIST: Who says big towns beat little towns. The Vikings showed some muscle here, winning 273,000 to 73,600.

PE ELL vs. NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN: My eyes shot open when I saw this. Definitely the wildcard of the bunch, as NW Christian sneaks past the Trojans, 416,000 to 404,000.

A Look At The Brackets
Click to enlarge the photos, and don't hurt your neck looking at the 2A or 1A brackets. Print out copies instead.

M's Youngsters Fun To Watch

I had the opportunity to cover Major League Baseball for five months during the 2007 season, writing roughly 70,000 words for MLB.com. Most of my reporting was on the Yankees, but when the M's were in the Big Apple, I would always drop into Seattle's clubhouse. I grew up in Bellingham, Wash., so I've followed the M's closely every season since I was a kid.

Despite the poor start this year, I'm optimistic. Not because I believe the team will just come around, but because the M's management has started leaning on its youngsters.

Jeff Clement is a big league player. His swing is pretty, and he's a great guy to boot (a pleasant interview). Wladimir Balentien, well, it's hard to tell how he will adjust to the bigs. My glass is always half full, though. I truly believe he'll be successful because he's cut back on his strikeouts by leaps and bounds throughout his career. Dude's got pop in his bat, too.

It will take both of them time to adjust, of course, but they are an improvement over Brad Wilkerson and Jose Vidro. And it's just flat-out fun to watch rookies play.

Remember Scott Podsednik? He starred for the Brewers and White Sox before getting injured. The Mariners never gave him a chance in Seattle. I'm glad the M’s are going to live or die by these kids. I'll watch that any day.

What's your take? Are the M's done? Do they have a shot with Erik Bedard and Felix Hernandez at the helm? Here's a couple of good sites to visit: U.S.S. Mariner and The Seattle Times' beat writer Geoff Baker's blog.

Cutline Contest! See Your Name on Sports' Front Page!

Looks like we had our first cutline contest dud last week, so we’ll start afresh with this rather interesting soccer photo that brings to mind some sort of action movie. Responses to these contests haven’t reached double digits yet. As soon as they do, I'll talk with the editors about prizes for the winners. Until then, winners' names will run in the paper.

So, take a stab at writing the funniest cutline (what’s going on in the picture) for the photo below. You can do this in the comments section of this post or you can e-mail me at cbreakey@chronline.com. See the photo larger by clicking on it.



(photo by Mike Salsbury / The Chronicle)

Unofficial Prep Baseball Rankings

(photo by Mike Salsbury / The Chronicle)


I found a link to these unofficial prep baseball rankings over at The Bellingham Herald’s blog. The site’s authority may be in question (http://washingtonbaseballpoll.com/ranking.php), but it does give you an idea of where a couple of our local teams stand in the state. The young W.F. West team finds itself ranked No. 4 among 2A schools, while Tenino earned the same in the 1As. Rochester also appears in the 1As at No. 6.

Take a look. Have many of you seen a couple of these out-of-Lewis County teams? Where do our baseball squads truly fit in?

If you’re curious, I included the 3A and 4A state rankings as well. (NOTE: I updated the records of our local teams, so they have more wins than when this poll was established).


2A RANKINGS
1. Sehome(16-2)
2. River Ridge (13-2)
3. Selah (15-2)
4. WF West (16-1)
5. Burlington (13-4)
6. Fife (13-2)
7. Mark Morris (12-4)
8. W. Valley, Spok.(13-4)
9.East Valley, Yak (13-4)
10.Eatonville (14-4)

THE SKINNY, W.F. West: A huge reason the Bearcats sit so close to the top has to be that youthful left side of the infield: Robert Pehl at third and Erik Forgione at shortstop. Going into their game with Centralia this past Wednesday, Pehl and Forgione were batting .470 and .365, respectively. Both are freshmen. Freshmen.. That's scary.

1A RANKINGS
1. Friday Harbor (14-0)
2. Kio-Benton (15-1)
3. Freeman (13-0)
4. Tenino (13-2)
5. Naches (14-2)
6. Rochester (13-4)
7. Lakeside (13-5)
8. River View (13-5)
9. Brewster (10-5)
10. Warden (13-5)

THE SKINNY, Tenino: Beaver pitcher Alex Phillips could be one of the best 1A pitchers in the state, but Tenino has thrown several hurlers this season who have been successful, including Jacob Conklin and Josh Moss ... not to mention the Beavs' offense has produced all year long.

THE SKINNY, Rochester: The Warriors have plenty of talent. Jordan Everson and Luke Steelhammer come to mind quickly. Rochester, however, has too many names to mention who have contributed mightily to the team's success. Jose Ortiz went from the No. 8 spot in the order to No. 2 after putting together numerous multi-hit games. The Ruiz brothers, Jardan and Jarin, have played solidly. And Ryan Knutz does a good job behind the plate, to name just a few.

3A RANKINGS
1. Blanchet (17-0)
2. Eastside Cath.(17-1)
3. Kelso (20-0)
4. Mt. Rainier (17-2)
5. Skyline (14-4)
6. Ferndale (16-2)
7. Timberline (13-3)
8. Capital (12-1)
9. Issaquah (10-7)
10. Southridge (11-5)

4A RANKINGS
1. Richland (13-1)
2. Redmond (16-2)
3. University (15-2)
4. Olympia (17-2)
5. Puyallup (16-3)
6. Snohmomish (15-3)
7. Kentlake (15-3)
8. Monore (15-3)
9. Battle Ground (15-6)
10.Mead (15-2)



(photo by Mike Salsbury / The Chronicle)