After a three-hour contest that included 91 plate appearances, 25 walks, 29 runs, and steady showers, W.F. West coach Kevin Zylstra could only laugh.
“I should be having dinner right now,” Zylstra said with a smile. “I’m glad it’s over.”
Zylstra’s Bearcats left Fort Borst Park with a Swamp Cup season sweep, as W.F. West held on for a 16-13 victory over Centralia.
In the fifth inning, the Bearcats (12-4, 7-1 2A EvCo) were up 14-4 and three outs away from leaving with a run-rule victory, but a seven-spot in the fifth got the Tigers (8-7, 3-5 2A EvCo) back within striking distance.
“Centralia battled their butts off,” Zylstra said. “They’re really pesky, and they just kept getting hits.”
After the Tigers scored the first four runs of the game, W.F. West got within one with three in the third, and they took over in the fourth.
As rain continued to fall, the Centralia pitching staff had issues with command, which led to several walks and wild pitches.
Zylstra said that the Bearcats quickly realized that they needed to be more patient at the plate and more aggressive on the base paths, as the ball often died near the backstop behind the dish.
“We were looking for that,” Zylstra said. “And we got quite a few of them.”
By the end of the inning, the Bearcats had collected just three hits, but they drew seven walks and scored 11 runs to take a lead and push it to 10.
“It would be really easy to give up at that point,” Centralia coach David Orr said.
But the Tigers didn’t go down easy.
Brooklyn Sprague, who hit a three-run home run in the first inning, hit her second home run of the day in the fifth to get Centralia within eight. The next six batters reached, and three of them scored, and Payton Baumel capped off the seven-run frame with an RBI single.
Sprague finished with two home runs, the first two of her high school career, and five runs batted in, while Baumel went 4 for 5 with a pair of RBIs.
“What’s not to get excited about there?” Orr said of the duo.
The first of Baumel’s two RBIs was a little extra sweet, as Baumel hit an RBI single after the batter in front of her was intentionally walked.
Orr commended Baumel after the game, saying her last few games have been the culmination of the work she’s put in over the last few weeks and months.
“Everytime I see her in that (on-deck) circle getting ready to come up, I’m excited,” Orr said.
The hole was just too big to climb out of, though. W.F. West added two in the sixth, and two in the seventh wasn’t enough to bridge the gap.
With the win, the Bearcats keep pace with Tumwater atop the EvCo standings. They’ll head to Rochester for a non-league matchup on Friday.
Centralia, on the other hand, remains a half-game back of Rochester for the league’s final playoff spot. The Tigers will have Friday off, and they’ll head to Black Hills on Wednesday.
They’ll wrap up their regular season by facing Aberdeen at home, going to Tumwater, and hosting Rochester in a potential playoff-deciding finale.
“They’ve never done anything without their backs against the wall,” Orr said. “Why start now?”
