The Centralia I-5 Toyota/Mountain Dew AAA squad came into Wednesday undefeated at the American Legion state tournament and rolled through five innings against a team it had already beaten once this weekend. But with one hand on the trophy and one foot on the plane to Wyoming for the regional championships, the Dewers faltered and Lakeside Recovery pounced, coming back to win 12-6 before taking the winner-take-all game 5-2.
“I don’t want to take anything away from them,” I-5 Toyota coach Lyle Overbay said. “They hit the ball, they had great at-bats. The (ball) fell for them, but that’s baseball. They put themselves in that situation, and that’s what good teams do.”
Centralia took a 4-1 lead in the first game thanks to a three-run home run off the bat of Kaleb McNeely, and after Lakeside scratched a run back in the top of the fifth, McNeely answered in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI single.
That made it 6-2, and six outs away from the title, Overbay brought in his third pitcher of the day in Trenton Gaither, who got one easy out before allowing four straight baserunners. The Dewers got the second out of the inning on an acrobatic snag by Logan Shepherd at second, but Gaither walked another run in, making it 6-4, and Overbay went back to the bullpen, calling on Kellan Knox to close things out with the bases still loaded.
Instead, Knox gave up an RBI single, which got even worse when the ball was muffed in the outfield, allowing all three runners to score to give Lakeside a 7-6 lead.
Knox got the next batter out to finally end the frame, but after Centralia managed nothing at the plate, Lakeside tagged him for five more in the seventh.
“We just left a couple pitches up, gave up a couple bloopers,” Overbay said. “The biggest thing is the mistakes after that. We just couldn’t overcome them and stop the bleeding.”
McNeely finished the game 3 for 3 — he went on to add an RBI triple to his line in the second game — and Joaquin Velez-Fucal was 2 for 2 with two free passes behind him.
The loss set up a winner-take-all title game, but the Centralia bats continued to slumber, managing just four hits in the first six innings. Tucker Weaver (Centralia) gave up four runs in just over four innings in the start, and by the time the Dewers got any sort of a rally going in the top of the seventh, it was too late.
Tumwater’s Brayden Oram went 3 for 4 at the top of the order to lead Centralia in Game 2, complete with a double.
