SJE Eagles bag first baseball title

St. John/Endicott Eagles hoist their first state baseball trophy after displacing Almira-Coulee-Hartline in the championship game Saturday night at Parker Field. The Eagles, who bagged three elim wins to advance to Yakima, took the lead in the second inning and kept it in the 1B battle which ended a big two days of baseball and softball title action in Yakima.

St. John/Endicott Eagles put together the hits and solid defense to derail the Almira-Coulee/Hartline Warriors Saturday night at Parker Field in Yakima.

The 1B baseball title round was a first for SJE, and they made the most of it.

“Everybody just came through with a good game at the right time,” Coach Rick Winters noted.

The Eagles turned back the Warrior club which had defeated Colton in the 2010 finale and edged the Wildcats again last week in the regional semi-final at Central Valley.

SJE qualified for the title game by taking two wins last week in the state’s other 1B regional round at Eisenhower.

“We just seemed to get it going at the right time,” Coach Winters said.

Saturday night, the Warriors marked a two-run start in the top of the first inning in their bid for a repeat title.

Despite leaving the bases loaded, they looked like they were on the way to a power win.

SJE answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning and scored three more over the next two frames to take the lead.

Senior pitcher Mason Van Lith settled down for the Eagles and allowed just six hits in taking the 10-3 win.

“Once he gets rolling in a game, he’s just hard to stop.

And that’s what happened,” Coach Winters said.

Van Lith shut off ACH with two strikeouts in the first inning.

SJE’s Cole McCanna singled to start the Eagles first inning response.

He stole second on a head-first slide and then scored on a hit by Van Lith who later scored to knot it at 2-2.

SJE took the lead, for keeps, in the second inning when Dallas Schluneger bunted to get on base and McCanna picked up the RBI with another hit.

They went up 5-2 with two more runs in the third.

Kyle Raynor singled and went to second on an fielder’s choice hit by Van Lith.

Sam Raynor picked up the RBI and later scored when Schluneger and Dakota Hallenius were bonked on the helmet by ACH starting pitcher Jacob Olmstead.

He hit two more batters over the balance of the game.

The Eagles capped it with a five-run explosion in the bottom of the sixth with Hallenius banging a three run triple to the left field fence for the biggest hit of the game.

Kyle Raynor drew a walk; Van Lith tagged another hit, and Bryce Bennett lined a shot down the first-base line for the first two RBIs in the big inning.

Evan Raynor walked and Schluneger was hit by another pitch to load up the bags in front of the Hallenius blast.

He finished with four RBIs.

Down 10-2, ACH picked up a lone run in the top of the last-chance seventh with Brandon Boutain hitting a single and making the loop.

Van Lith fanned two batters, allowed one hit and closed the win with a third strikeout.

He was credited with seven strikeouts in taking the win.

SJE totaled 11 hits.

The Warriors arrived at Parker with a 22-1 record; SJE took the field after bagging three elimination wins to remain in the hunt for their first title.

The Eagles will lose Van Lith, Hallenius, Evan and Kyle Raynor to graduation.

Also departing will be Coach Winters who has accepted the AD job at Southern Virginia.

Assistant Coach Kyle Schultheis, a Colton grad who played baseball at Wenatchee Valley, is in line to coach the club next year.