RIDGEFIELD — Earlier this season, Grady Westlund picked up a box he found near the road. Inside, he found several bottles of sauce.
Instead of throwing them out, he started messing with his teammates. Bottles of sauce began appearing in players' bags.
“That’s just him,” Ross Kelley said with a laugh. “He started saucing them.”
What began as a joke quickly turned into a team rallying cry.
“We had a game that day, brought it out, and we’ve been playing good ever since,” Kelley said. “Now we kinda have to have it. We always gotta have the sauce.”
Several bottles of sauce were present near the far gate of the W.F. West dugout on Wednesday in Ridgefield, and the Bearcats brought the sauce themselves on the field.
They blew out R.A. Long 11-1 in a 2A District 4 Semifinal, a win that puts them in the district title game for the third year in a row. It also puts them in their third straight state tournament.
“I think we all had sauce today,” Kelley said with a smile. “I like where we’re at.”
The Bearcats only had five hits at the plate, but they consistently grinded out long at-bats and wreaked havoc on the base paths.
They led 1-0 going into the third, which ended up being the first of back-to-back big innings. Hiroto Smaciarz drew a walk after being down 0-2, and two more walks loaded the bases with just one out.
Carlos Vallejo hit a soft liner to center to bring home one run, then back-to-back balks from R.A. Long’s pitcher forced home two more. Miles Martin made it 5-0 with an RBI knock of his own.
Isaiah Nachatilo-Smetzler was hit by a pitch to open the fourth, and four batters later, it was 9-0. Weston Potter was caught in a rundown between third and home, but he was able to get out of it and dive home safely to push the lead to 10.
“Both of those big innings started with a great at-bat,” W.F. West coach Jesse Elam said. “It’s just them competing their butt off and trying to get to the next guy. We did a good job of that today.”
Westlund did his part on the mound, allowing just two hits and one run while striking out four.
“He’s a dude,” Elam said. “Grady’s Grady. He’s already in a Carhartt sweatshirt. He’s his own dude for sure, and that’s what we love about him. Every time that he’s on the mound, our guys are really confident.”
Potter and Martin finished with two hits apiece, while Vallejo finished 1 for 3 and drove in three runs.
“I feel like we’re hitting our stride at the right time and playing good ball,” Kelley said. “As long as we keep it going, I really like where we’re at.”
W.F. West (21-2) will play in the district title game for the third straight season on Saturday in Ridgefield against Tumwater.
Last season, they lost to Columbia River, but in 2023, they overcame an 8-2 deficit to beat the T-Birds 11-8.
“It was wild,” Elam said. “Expect nothing but that on Saturday.”
