MATT BAIDE / mbaide@chronline.com
Members of The Chronicle’s 2016 All-Area baseball team pose for a photo on Friday at Ed Wheeler Field in Centralia. In the front, from left, are PWV’s Red Arrington and Tenino’s Kaleb Strawn. In the second row, from left, are Toledo’s Connor Vermilyea, Alex Bacon and Wes Kuzminsky. In the third row, from left, are W.F. West’s Tyson Guerrero and Dakota Hawkins, PWV’s Kaelin Jurek, Tenino’s Rob Wall, and W.F. West’s Jacob Cleary and Elijah Johnson. Around the back, from left, are Centralia’s Riley Christensen, Napavine’s Sam Fagerness and Centralia’s Christian Peters. Below: Centralia’s Nolan Wasson (left) and Adna’s Spencer Burdick (right).
The Chronicle's 2016 All-Area Baseball Team. Front Row (L to R): PWV's Kaelin Jurek, PWV's Red Arrington, Centralia's Riley Christensen, Centralia's Christian Peters, Toledo's Alex Bacon, Toledo's Wes Kuzminsky, Toledo's Connor Vermilyea. Back Row: (L to R): Napavine's Sam Fagerness, Tenino's Rob Wall, Tenino's Kaleb Strawn, W.F. West's Elijah Johnson, W.F. West's Jacob Cleary, W.F. West's Dakota Hawkins, W.F. West's Tyson Guerrero. Not pictured: Adna's Spencer Burdick, Centralia's Nolan Wasson
There was plenty of aces this season in the Greater Lewis County area baseball scene.
Junkballers. Flamethrowers. Gritty guys that just want to get outs, no matter how long it takes.
As far as building a team, though, two pitchers stood out among the crowd — and, as each threw from a different side of the rubber on the pitcher’s mound — split The Chronicle’s All-Area Baseball MVP award.
Pe Ell-Willapa Valley ace Aidan ‘Red’ Arrington and Tenino ace Kaleb Strawn were both dominant throughout the season and helped their respective teams defy expectations.
The Titans, playing together for the second year, won the Central 2B League championship and came up short against fellow C2BL squad Toledo in the state championship game.
Arrington was at the center of it all, pitching 95 innings and going 14-1 with 133 strikeouts and a 1.98 ERA. He played shortstop when not on the bump, and hit .511 with 41 RBIs, five home runs, 13 doubles and five triples.
“He had confidence in himself. He just got kids out,” PWV coach Hal Arrington, also the pitcher’s father, said. “He pinpointed his pitches pretty good, on the outside corner — he loved throwing there. But he was our mainstay getting us to where we finished the season, for sure.”
Arrington plans to attend Centralia College next year, though his future in baseball is still to be determined.
Strawn, meanwhile, took a Beaver team that finished fifth in the Evergreen 2A/1A League and led them to a surprise District 4 championship run and spot in the regional playoffs — where, as usual, he dominated, though this time in a losing effort.
Strawn pitched a complete game and allowed just two hits in the 1-0 loss to Nooksack Valley, striking out a whopping 16 batters.
The lefthander, with a fastball clocked in the high 80s, struck out a staggering 122 batters in his senior season over 56 ⅔ innings, with a 5-3 record and a 1.75 ERA. He added to that by hitting .388 with 20 RBIs and 24 runs and playing center field, with a few stints at first base.
Beaver coach Conner Hogue said Strawn epitomizes what the coaching staff wants in a player, in that he got a little playing time in his younger years, learned from his mistakes and improved every offseason.
“He not only improved his pitching, but he improved his offense, all the while being a great teammate,” Hogue said. “He’s just a gamer. He’s going to show up every day and give you his absolute best effort, no questions asked, no excuses, and you’ve got to respect that.”
Strawn has signed a letter of intent to pitch for Columbia Basin College in Pasco next year.
W.F. West, which won the Evergreen 2A Conference title with an 8-1 record and made it to the regional finals, placed four players on the All-Area squad — all of whom, coincidentally, pitched at least 10 innings this season, and all of whom earned All-League first-team nods.
Jacob Cleary, a senior righthander, was the staff ace, going 8-1 on the season with a 1.01 ERA, 38 strikeouts and just six walks in 55 ⅓ innings.
Dakota Hawkins, a sophomore third baseman, hit .378 with 23 RBIs and three home runs, and worked 30 ⅓ innings on the mound with a 1.62 ERA and 37 strikeouts, and Tyson Guerrero — typically a center fielder — went 4-0 with a 1.02 ERA in 27 ⅓ innings while striking out 44. Guerrero also hit .284 with five doubles.
Elijah Johnson, a senior four-year starter, pitched 10 ⅓ innings mostly in spot relief, but hit .339 with 12 RBIs and five doubles as the Bearcats’ emotional leader and day-to-day shortstop.
Centralia, which finished second in the EvCo, third in District 4 and made the regional playoffs in the follow-up to its state championship in 2015, placed three seniors — all All-League first-teamers — on the All-Area squad. University of Portland-bound ace pitcher Christian Peters went 9-3 with a 2.39 ERA and 72 strikeouts, and hit .354 with four homers and 22 RBIs on his way to winning the EvCo MVP award.
Nolan Wasson, the Tigers’ starting shortstop, led the team with a .402 average and knocked in 19 runs with six doubles, and Riley Christensen, a center fielder, hit .382 with nine RBIs out of the leadoff spot, with a 2.07 ERA as the Tigers’ No. 2 pitcher.
Toledo, which finished second in the C2BL and fourth in District 4 before winning four straight games to capture its first-ever state title, placed three seniors on the All-Area squad. Wes Kuzminsky, the team’s workhorse ace pitcher and shortstop, hit .368 with 24 RBIs, four doubles and 15 stolen bases, and pitched 81 ⅔ innings with a 2.31 ERA, an 11-4 record and 90 strikeouts.
Connor ‘Corndog’ Vermilyea — a pitcher, first baseman and ringleader on the field, with a .333 average and 19 RBIs at the plate and a 1.38 ERA, 42 strikeouts and nine walks in 55 ⅔ innings on the mound — was another All-Area pick, along with teammate Alex Bacon, the Indians’ starting center fielder with a .383 average, 17 RBIs, 26 runs scored and 16 stolen bases.
Tenino’s Rob Wall, the Beavers’ starting shortstop all season long, was a first-team Evergreen 2A/1A League pick who hit .372 this season with a .449 on-base percentage and 16 RBIs.
A trio of first-team All-Central 2B League players rounded out the All-Area squad. Pe Ell-Willapa Valley’s Kaelin Jurek, a junior, was a force at catcher, allowing just one runner to steal on him throughout the year and hitting .494 with nine doubles, a triple and 37 RBIs.
Adna’s Spencer Burdick, the ace of the defending state champion Pirates, hit .500 this season splitting his time between the mound and first base, with 27 RBIs and 16 walks. On the mound, the right-handed junior went 9-3 with a 1.42 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 63 innings.
Napavine’s Sam Fagerness led the Tigers to a regional berth, hitting .542 with a .703 on-base percentage, five home runs, 21 walks and just two strikeouts while catching, playing second base and taking on a starting pitching role in time for the playoffs.
