After dropping its league opener to Montesano earlier this season, the Tenino baseball team needed to pull off a road sweep of the Bulldogs Tuesday afternoon to secure a 1A Evergreen league championship.
Though the Beavers took the first game, 8-4, to force the all-important rubber match for a league championship, a blown lead in the sixth saw T90’s title hopes vanish in an 8-6 loss in the second game.
It’s the Bulldogs’ seventh straight Evergreen league title.
“They wanted it,” Tenino coach Ryan Schlesser said. “They knew what was at stake, and they knew what they had to do. They were ready for the moment and we just weren’t.”
Tenino led 6-4 heading into the bottom of the sixth after a 5-spot in the fifth and an insurance run in the top of the sixth, but that insurance would prove to not be enough.
Montesano led off by reaching on an error, then singled to move the runner into scoring position. After a walk to load the bases, the Bulldogs hit another single to bring the deficit to one. Another walk tied the game.
Then after a sacrifice fly, and a groundout that scored another run, the Beavers saw their lead disappear in one inning, and didn’t get any runners into scoring position in a scoreless seventh.
On a brighter note, the Beavers took the first game, jumping out to an early lead thanks to some strong innings of work on the mound by Cody Strawn.
The junior threw the first five innings of the 8-4 win, allowing four runs on four hits and five walks, but with five strikeouts. Jack Burkhardt recorded the save out of the pen, holding on to a late lead with three strikeouts over two innings. Easton Snider went 2 for 4 with a big two RBIs, and Kellan Knox added a 2 for 3 line with two runs scored.
In the second contest, Knox had two RBIs and Strawn went 2 for 4 with a run scored and two more RBIs.
“It’s pretty cool to see where our program is headed,” Schlesser said. “We expect to be in that game, this is a great learning moment for us. That’s a playoff baseball game. Monte is a really good team and if we can learn from the mistakes we made, hopefully when that situation occurs again, we can take care of business.”
The Beavers take on Elma on Friday for their regular season finale on the road, with the second seed in league already wrapped up. They’ll play the Trico’s No. 3 next Monday in Hoquiam at 4 p.m.
“We don’t really care what seed we are,” Schlesser said. “If we play our kind of baseball we’ll be tough to beat.”
