Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
With wins in the state quarterfinals and semifinals on the same day, May 19, Colton advanced to the 1B state baseball championship game Saturday in Centralia.
Gametime is 4 p.m. at Wheeler Field for Colton vs. Almira/Coulee/Hartline.
Last weekend at Winlock, Wash., the Wildcats beat Naselle 9-6 and Evergreen Lutheran 2-1 to make it to the title game.
Against Naselle, senior pitcher Cameron Bean first got a save and then threw six innings in the state semifinal against Evergreen Lutheran, for one unearned run.
Reece Chadwick, a junior, started on the mound in the quarterfinals. In the sixth inning, Naselle loaded the bases with the go-ahead run at bat before Chadwick threw a pitch that the batter hit into a groundout.
Chadwick allowed just three earned runs in the game.
At the plate for the Wildcats, leadoff hitter Tom Wolf had two RBIs in a game Colton led 8-0 in the first inning.
In the semifinals, with Bean working the mound on defense, on offense Luke Vining stood in the batter’s box in the third inning with two outs and two strikes. On the next pitch, Vining hit a line-drive to right centerfield.
After Bean left the mound at his maximum pitch count (105 per day, by WIAA rules) with two outs in the top of the seventh, Matt Wolf, another senior, came in as relief and walked the first two batters to load the bases for Evergreen Lutheran. Colton still led 2-1.
Against the next batter, Wolf threw a pitch inside to jam him, he swung and hit a pop fly. Colton (18-7) caught it to escape with the game – and entry into the state final.
“We definitely needed to get an out when we got an out,” said coach Pat Doumit.
Additional Colton hits in the semifinal came from Parker Druffel and Matt Wolf. In the quarterfinals, other hits were from Bean, Chadwick, Jon Bean (triple) and Jackson Meyer.
Bean had thrown 10 pitches in the quarterfinals in relief.
“Both of these starters were excellent in getting to into the seventh inning in 105 pitches,” Doumit said.
Against Naselle in the quarterfinal, wary that his team was facing its best hitting opponent all season, Doumit called each pitch for Chadwick as the Wildcats built a 9-2 lead in the third inning.
“Then they just kept cutting in, 9-4, 9-6,” said Doumit.
In the sixth, it continued until Naselle had the tying run at the plate before Chadwick shut it off.
In the semifinal, Bean had less direction.
“With Cam, we just let him go,” Doumit said. “Whatever he was throwing worked so we just let him go.”
Title matchup
For the state championship game, which is the Wildcats’ fifth appearance in nine years, they meet the Warriors of Almira/Coulee/Hartline, a team which Colton has played in the 1B state playoffs each year since 2010.
“In the postseason, you know you’re gonna see them,” Doumit said.
Many of this year’s roster last saw them on the football field last November, when Colton lost 72-46 in Coulee City in the first round of the 1B playoffs.
Now, Colton gets ready to play in its third state title game under Doumit, a seventh-year coach. The main assignment will be to handle “a true ace, a power-arm pitcher,” as Doumit described.
To prepare, Colton has practiced this week with Doumit pitching to them from behind an L-screen moved closer to the plate to mimic the faster speeds of the Warriors’ pitchers.
“Our hitters can’t have any extra unnecessary movement to their swing,” said Doumit. “The ball will get there too fast.”
Colton will get on the bus Friday morning at 8 a.m. to arrive in Centralia for an afternoon practice and perhaps take in some of the 2B semifinals that night.
The next day they will wait for 4 p.m.
Who will start on the mound?
“It will be a mid-week decision,” Doumit said Tuesday night. “I would imagine Reece and Cameron in some combination and maybe Matt (Wolf) if we need him.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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