Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Colton High School baseball team beat Quilcene 9-0 May 18 to advance to play Odessa in a state 1B semifinal, a team they beat 15-10 May 7 in the district playoffs.
This time, with a berth in the championship game on the line in Chehalis, Colton lost 12-2, ending the Wildcats’ season.
Odessa advances to the championship to play Almira/Coulee/Hartline which beat Colton 6-5 in a state seeding game last week.
In the other semifinal, ACH took out Sunnyside Christian 4-0.
Earlier in the day, in the quarterfinals, Odessa eliminated Naselle 11-2, ACH beat Evergreen Lutheran 2-1 and Sunnyside Christian outlasted Pomeroy 4-3 in extra innings.
“We were really sharp against Quilcene,” said Pat Doumit, 12th-year Colton coach, who has announced his resignation, but will remain as a teacher at Colton.
Against Odessa, in the third inning, four Wildcats’ errors led to five Odessa runs.
“We hit real well all day,” said Doumit. “The bats were there. The defense tapered off a bit as the day went on and that’s something that can’t happen when you’re playing for your season.”
Jackson Meyer, a junior, led Colton at the plate with four hits total while Reece Chadwick got two hits with a triple.
“Luke Vining had a couple hits,” Doumit said. “Luke always has a couple hits.”
Parker Druffel added two more hits on the day.
“I don’t think the pitchers on either side were fooling anybody,” said Doumit of the Odessa semifinal.
Colton concluded its season with a record of 16-8.
In the end, for the 2019 state title game Saturday at Parker-Faller Field in Yakima, Odessa, a team Colton beat two weeks ago in the district playoffs, will meet its league rival, ACH, whom the Wildcats narrowly lost to in the state seeding game.
“It speaks to the strength of baseball on the east side of the state,” said Doumit.
CAREERS
Chadwick finished his Colton baseball career as the Southeast 1B league Most Valuable Player for the second straight year. Vining, another senior, led the team with 40-plus hits on the season and five Colton players were named first team all-conference: Druffel, Vining, Chadwick, and juniors Kian Anderson and Jon Bean.
Colton’s three seniors all started since they were eighth-graders, beginning in 2015, taking spots left by four graduates from the state championship team the year before.
Eighth-graders are allowed to play high school sports in Washington if the school enrollment is under a certain threshold.
Parker Druffel, Reece Chadwick and Luke Vining were kids in the first second grade P.E. class Doumit taught at Colton School.
“They’re a dynamic bit,” said Doumit. “Parker; flashy, athletic, you see the physical ability right away, and incredibly smart player. Luke is one of the most underrated athletes I’ve every coached... And Reece is the complete package.”
Chadwick will go to Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake next year to play baseball.
Only one other player started for Doumit for five years during the coach’s tenure at Colton: Brady Chadwick.
RESIGNATION
Doumit, who lives in Pullman, will remain at Colton school, teaching math, pre-algebra and P.E., while taking more time to watch his son play baseball, who will be a freshman at Pullman High next year.
“I’ve loved everything about coaching at Colton, but I’m really excited to go be his fan now,” Doumit said.
He will again coach the Whitman County Single-A team this summer (age 13-16).
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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