Bearcats Down T-Birds for District Title

COMEBACK AT THE RORC: W.F. West Scores Nine Runs in Final Three Innings to Beat Tumwater

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RIDGEFIELD — Turns out it’s the fourth time that’s the charm.

The W.F. West baseball team’s fourth crack at Tumwater this season started off much the same way its previous three had gone, with the Bearcats falling in a deep hole right out of the gate. But as the lights brightened at the RORC in the District 4 title game, the Bearcats rose up to the moment, beating the T-Birds 11-8 to earn their second district crown in three years.

“I’m proud of the way that we competed today,” WFW coach Jesse Elam said. “We didn’t give up. It felt like in the previous matchups that we had with them, we just kind of rolled over. We just kept fighting, chipping away. They would score and we would answer, and our pitchers controlled the zone.”

That’s pitchers, plural, because when the Bearcats needed their touted depth on the hill to show up, the bullpen won them a trophy.

Playing for the third time in four days, Elam knew he’d be without ace Hunter Lutman or Braden Jones. That still left five horses left in the stable, four of which hadn’t thrown a single pitch in the tournament.

So when Riggs Westlund — the only other Bearcat needed to throw in the first two games — ran into trouble, with the T-Birds barrelling him up for five runs in the first inning, Elam felt comfortable giving him an early hook, pulling him after a frame in favor of Miles Martin.

And Martin, a freshman, was too young and naive to know that he was supposed to be intimidated by the defending state champs coming to bat against him.

“He’s just a bulldog. He goes out there and it doesn’t matter who’s up, he’s going to compete his butt off and try to throw it by them,” Elam said. “He was awesome.”

As W.F. West’s bullpen shined, Tumwater’s started to falter. With Alex Overbay and Trenton Gaither — who had thrown exactly half of the T-Birds innings this season — out of the equation, Lyle Overbay went with Brayden Oram to start. But once things started to get shaky in the fourth, a string of four pitchers never managed to wrest things back under control.

It started with an infield single by Avery Staloch to lead off the bottom of the frame, which ended with Staloch on second after an error. Another error brought a run home and cut the lead to 8-3, a walk put a runner on, and W.F. West made it 8-4 on another grounder that failed to get an out. A ground out scored another run, and a wild pitch made it 8-6 before Tumwater could get back in the dugout.

“At first, we were a little down,” W.F. West’s Waylen Land said. “But when we came out, we realized that if we kept up our energy, we could keep up right there with them.”

The momentum only sped up in the fifth, with the Bearcats drawing seven straight walks. Tumwater catcher Graysen Reveal managed to get two outs in the frame picking runners off of second, but the latter two free passes — walks to Gavin Fugate and Braden Jones — came with the bases loaded and tied the game.

And in the sixth, the hammer fell. Two hit batters and a bunt single loaded the bases. Jeron Martin walked to bring the go-ahead run home. Then Deacon Meller — who had ended a Tumwater threat in the top of the inning with a strike out of center field to nail a runner at third — drew another. Jones got hit by a pitch, and W.F. West not only had a lead; it had insurance.

The Bearcats finished the game with nine runs in the final three innings, during which they didn’t hit the ball out of the infield and had two hits, which traveled a combined distance under 90 feet.

Four Tumwater pitchers combined to issue 12 walks, and hit five batters. At the top of the W.F. West lineup, Meller drew three walks and wore a pitch, finishing with a run driven in and two more scored despite officially finishing 0 for 1.

After three innings of work for Martin, who allowed two earned runs on two hits, the Bearcats turned to Land to finish things off. The senior southpaw only struck out one, but gave up just one hit. 

“He’s tough on hitters, especially when he’s throwing strikes and he’s getting his curveball over,” Elam said. “It’s fun to watch.”

Land started his outing trying to keep the deficit at just two runs. But every time he came back out of the dugout to throw again, his hitters had turned the game around even more. And contrasted to Tumwater’s struggles, Land steered the ship home with no bumps along the way, getting an easy fly out to Meller in center to end the game and trigger a flash mob of Bearcats in front of the mound.

W.F. West and Tumwater will learn their seedings in the 2A state tournament Sunday, and will learn just how heavily the selection committee weighs district titles. The T-Birds go into the final dance as 2A EvCo champions, while W.F. West has won five straight, and has the depth to go further.

And after seeing how last year went, with Tumwater losing to Columbia River at the RORC in districts before beating the Rapids to win the state title, there’s no guarantee that there isn’t a fifth matchup between these two sides on the horizon either.

“The boys were ready this time,” Elam said with a smile. “Now it’s that we might get to see them again.”