ADNA – To the Napavine High School baseball team and to the entirety of the C2BL, a game that happened on March 28 would end up being a turning point.
That day was when the Tigers lost to Wahkiakum, who didn’t make the postseason, by a final of 4-3 in the second game of a league doubleheader. It put them at 5-3 on the year and no win was dominant nor no loss one-sided.
Yet it served a larger purpose.
“We revamped ourselves and we had kids who re-dedicated themselves,” Napavine head coach Brian Demarest said. “They started to listen to instructions and not allow themselves to lose. That loss was actually the best thing that could have ever happened to us.”
Since that fateful day, the Tigers have been on a roll and they are returning to a place that’s been all too familiar.
In a thrilling Class 2B District 4 elimination game, Napavine used an early four-run outburst and featured enough timely hits at the end to stave off league rival Toledo 10-6 on Thursday afternoon at Adna High School to claim its spot in the state tournament.
The state bracket will be released once all the 2B games are completed. Napavine (19-4) will face Ilwaco on Friday in the third place game to be played on its home field at 1 p.m.
“We made plays when we needed it,” pitcher Ashton Demarest said. “We weren’t the most efficient as we could have been, (but) we won.”
From the opening pitch until the final out, the contest had the makings of a back-and-forth affair. It lived up to the moment.
Catcher Grady Wilson drove in five runs for the Tigers, two to cap a four-run bottom of the first and his final two on a bouncing ground ball that went over the head of Riverhawks first baseman Kaven Winters in the fifth to make it an 8-4 cushion.
Even with batting seventh in the lineup, Wilson has proven to be a threat. He’s top-five on the team in batting average, hits and RBIs.
“Just play with confidence every at-bat,” Wilson said. “Find a way to get something going.”
“He’s always been a kid that can do it, he just has to figure out he wants to do it,” Coach Demarest added. “Something clicked and he decided he wants to be a dude.”
Toledo (14-11) never went away.
It scored two runs on back-to-back RBI singles from Winters and Rayder Stemkoski to cut the deficit in half in the sixth. Cleanup hitter Gavin Frewing, coming off two home runs in his last game, waltzed to the plate as the go-ahead run.
Ashton Demarest wanted to challenge him right away.
“If I get ahead, I can do whatever I want,” he said. “I wanted (the curveball) to hit (the) back plate.”
Frewing hit the second pitch out to right field that was caught to end the threat. Jack Nelson drove in two on a single in the bottom half and Cal Bullock shut the door in the seventh, leaving two on base.
Ashton Demarest, Wilson and Beckett Landram all recorded two hits for the Tigers. They had just eight hits – one of them for extra bases – and three of them came with two outs. Ashton Demarest tossed 103 pitches in six innings to earn the win.
“I was never comfortable because I know how our league is,” Coach Demarest said. “Our league is freaking tough.”
Despite 11 hits, the Riverhawks stranded at least one runner on base in every frame.
“They literally fought until the very end,” Toledo assistant coach Mike Croy said. “We battled the whole way. I was proud of them.”
There were some early fireworks that sparked the Riverhawks.
Head Coach Mack Gaul was thrown out of the game for arguing a call with the home plate umpire. He tossed the rule book at home plate on his way out.
Toledo responded with two runs in the third and another in the fourth, but it never grabbed hold of the lead. Rogan Stanley notched three hits and Stemkoski recorded two. Frewing and Rohan Feigenbaum each had a hit and RBI. Caiden Schultz went three innings and recorded seven strikeouts.
“After Mack got tossed, we made a decision we were going to be aggressive,” Croy said. “Try to spark it ourselves.”
That aggressiveness was a mixed bag of results. Napavine caught the Riverhawks in pickles three times in the game.
“It makes you really have to pay attention all the time,” Wilson said.
Toledo said goodbye to seven seniors, but the core returning is what Croy is hopeful can bring the program back to the same point next spring.
“Don’t let what these seniors worked so hard to build, falter,” he said. “There is an expectation at Toledo baseball now and all these underclassmen get to see it.”
Napavine is guaranteed at least two more games and with a 14-1 record over the last month, it is oozing with confidence.
“Hoping we can get pretty dangerous,” Ashton Demarest said. “We’re in a good spot to blow things up.”
