Seven unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth and sixth innings combined ignited the Evergreen League second-seeded Beavers to an 11-6 victory over the Trico league’s third-seeded King’s Way Christian in a Class 1A District 4 quarterfinal on Monday at Hoquiam.
It sets up a semifinal showdown between Tenino (17-5) and Seton Catholic on Tuesday night. The two teams met in the district championship a season ago, a game won by the Cougars in dominating fashion.
“We’re gonna have to play a really clean game,” Tenino head coach Ryan Schlesser said. “You wanna talk about a complete team, Seton is it. Your best teams are in district four.”
Winners of four straight, the Beavers broke a 4-4 tie on a sacrifice fly by Jude Leitch and a passed ball that plated Austin Gonia. They added five in the sixth, the big hit a two-run double by Jack Burkhardt to make it a 10-4 game.
Burkhardt threw the max of 105 pitches and battled out of seven hits, four earned runs and five walks. Schlesser called the senior’s double “the definition of helping yourself.”
Hunter Sweet finished 3-for-3 with four runs scored while Preston Snider, Tenino’s No. 8 hitter, recorded two hits. Gonia scored three times on two hits.
“They don’t get a lot of shine,” Schlesser said of Sweet and Snider. “They’ve been doing a lot of good things all year.”
