W.F. West and Tumwater have had their fair share of battles in recent years. In addition to several regular-season bouts, the Bearcats and T-Birds have met in the state tournament twice in the last four seasons, and they faced off for a district title in Ridgefield last May.
Another postseason meeting could very well be on the horizon, as both teams have their eyes set on getting back to Bellingham after losing in the state quarterfinals last spring.
The Bearcats lost nine seniors to graduation last spring, but they return a bounty of talent, including Connor Coleman, who recently committed to Washington State University.
Coleman leads a rotation of talented arms that includes Wyatt Hoffman, Hayden Rooney, and Hudson McCallum, and Miles Martin and Beckman Dvorak are expected to headline W.F. West’s lineup.
Tumwater also is down several starters from last season, but like W.F. West, there is no shortage of talent in place to fill the well.
Luke Overbay, Jimmy Womach, and were both first-team EvCo players last season, and Braeden Konrad has also been an all-leaguer in the past.
Peyton Davis earned an honorable mention last spring, and Charlie Crawford is also back in the fold after an impressive junior campaign.
Last spring, both the Bearcats and Thunderbirds went a perfect 12-0 against the other four teams in the EvCo, but W.F. West took the season series over Tumwater 2-1 to finish as league champions before the T-Birds got their revenge in the district title game.
This season, W.F. West and Tumwater are set to face off on April 17 in Chehalis in their first meeting before back-to-back matchups in Chehalis and Tumwater on May 4 and 5.
Centralia and Black Hills will also play each other three times this season, and their third matchup could determine a district berth like it did last season.
The Tigers snapped their six-year postseason drought with a win in the regular season finale despite being no-hit, while the Wolves missed out on the district tournament for the seventh year in a row.
Kadin Yeung is back to lead the Centralia rotation, and Rocco Waring and Jake Johnson are also slated to get innings along with Wyatt Van Der Hoeff.
Black Hills got off to a 1-0 start with a comeback win over Hoquiam, a game where Brody Rice and Lincoln Brannin impressed at the plate.
Toby Hilden got the opening day start, and both Brannin, Noah Marshall, and Asher Strauss came in out of the pen. Strauss was particularly impressive, pitching three hitless innings and striking out six.
With Shelton being a 3A team, it’ll be Black Hills, Centralia, and Aberdeen battling for the league’s final two postseason spots.
Black Hills and Centralia are scheduled to meet on April 21 and 22 in Tumwater and Centralia before a rubber match on May 7 in Tumwater.
