Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
ColtonAfterVictory
Colton softball
The Champions: Coach Pat Doumit, assistant Justin Erwin, Cameron Bean, Peter Schultheis, Carter Dahmen, Brady Chadwick, Grant Kinzer, Reece Chadwick, assistant Taylor Spence, Nick Schultheis, Luke Vining, Matt Wolf, Tom Wolf, Brady Stout and Parker Druffel.
Colton junior Daylinn Smith bats in the state semifinals against Almira/Coulee/Hartline. Colton beat Pomeroy 14-6 to take its seventh state 1B softball championship in eight years.
Is it Gainesville, is it Green Bay, is it Boston, is it Pittsburgh?
The term “Titletown” has applied to them all. In 2016, it may just belong to Colton, Wash.
In the past three years, Colton High School has won eight state championships, the last two on Saturday when Brady Chadwick led the Wildcats baseball team to victory at Centralia, and Colton's no Moser-no problem roster won the 1B softball title in Yakima, their seventh in eight years.
After last year, when star pitcher Zoe Moser was injured and the team finished fourth, this year a basketball injury – during a state title run – kept Moser out for the whole season. At the Gateway Complex last weekend, she crouched beside coach Brad Nilson in a sweatshirt and sent pitch signals to catcher Abby Kelly.
On the field, two seniors, three juniors and a new generation took the stage. Not one sophomore was on the roster.
“It felt good to win,” said Nilson, Colton's 10-year head coach.
After losing Moser, and a couple other players who decided not to turn out, Nilson told his team at the start of the season they could control only two things: their attitude and their effort.
“It's been a hard year,” he said. “I had holes to fill. I had no idea my outfield would be as good as they were.”
Opening the state tournament with an 18-0 win over Rainier Christian, Colton (18-5) played Almira/Coulee/Hartline in the semifinals, winning 10-6.
On Saturday, for the state final, they met a Southeast 1B league foe: Pomeroy, making its first state appearance in 20 years.
Familiarity bred, and the Wildcats trailed 5-3 in the sixth inning when Rachel Meyer dropped a base hit between the Pomeroy infield and outfield.
“All of the sudden, we were stringing hits together,” Nilson said.
Colton tied the game, still in the sixth.
In the seventh they built on the lead to take the championship going away, 14-6.
Freshman Emily Schultheis led at the plate with five hits while Kendyl Druffel added three.
Freshman designated-hitter Addison Kinzer delivered three RBIs.
“In all my years doing this, it seems it's the bottom end of the lineup that does it for you,” Nilson said. “Maybe it's because they don't feel the pressure.”
In the end, the team members went home with parents.
Nilson and assistant Robin Brown boarded the empty bus for the ride back to the Palouse.
Earlier
In the state semifinal game, playing past state foe Almira/Coulee/Hartline, Colton's Daylinn Smith and Emily Schultheis both went 3-for-4 at bat while Emma Schultheis went 2-for-3 and Druffel 2-for-4.
Emma Schultheis, a junior, pitched all seven innings, to allow 10 hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
In the first round against Rainier Christian, MaryAnn Jacobs and Daylinn Smith both went 2-for-3. On the mound, Emma Schultheis pitched all five innings, allowing five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
STATE 1B BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: Colton 8, Evergreen Christian 1
In Centralia, inside the green wooden fences of Wheeler Field, the Colton baseball team took on Evergreen Christian for the title.
The day began with a lot of waiting for the 4 p.m. start.
Junior pitcher Brady Chadwick set the tone by walking into the motel foyer for breakfast wearing roommate Peter Schultheis' full catcher's gear.
“Everything that Brady does is spontaneous,” said Colton coach Pat Doumit.
Breakfast followed dinner the night before at Red Robin in Olympia, which followed a workout at Tumwater High School. It was lone senior Carter Dahmen who first knew where the restaurant was – two years ago it was him who said 'let's go there' after the 2014 team won the state championship.
“Carter knows where every restaurant in the state is,” Doumit said.
This year the team went the night before the game – and the night of, again, taking the state title, and once more, carrying the trophy into the Olympia Red Robin for the centerpiece of their table.
To do it again in 2016, Chadwick delivered on the mound, throwing 12 strikeouts, allowing four hits with three walks, one of them intentional.
Colton (23-3) never trailed, taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning and picking up two more runs in the second off a two-RBI single from Schultheis. A two-run single from Dahmen made for two more in the fourth.
At the plate, Dahmen went 2-for-3 and drove in the eighth and final run for the championship.
“It was just an awesome way for him to go out as a senior,” Doumit said.
Schultheis, the junior catcher, went 2-for-3 with an RBI-double in the fifth inning.
Grant Kinzer, another junior, added a double off the wall and an earlier sacrifice fly.
“He's come miles offensively,” Doumit said.
As a freshman in the 2014 playoffs, Kinzer did not hit, as Doumit sent in Schultheis as a designated-hitter in his place.
Now, two years later, Kinzer batted ahead of Schultheis in the lineup and led the Southeast 1B league in batting average.
The 2016 1B championship marks the third in five years for Doumit, in his ninth year at Colton.
Summer now begins in Titletown. Next spring the team will pull on their cleats and hats and come out for another season.
“We lose one guy next year,” Doumit said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)