Coming through for your team during the regular season is one thing. Coming through on the grand stage under big-time pressure is quite another.
The good players do the former; the great ones, the latter.
Rochester senior left-hander Brian Riffe was named The Chronicle's All-Area Baseball Team MVP after leading his Warriors to a second-place finish in the state's 2A ranks.
Rochester had the formidable task at the state Final Four of opening with perennial power Ephrata, and the Warriors were heavy underdogs.
But Riffe came through with arguably his best pitching effort of the season and tossed a one-hit shutout in Rochester's 4-0 victory.
The win boosted Riffe's record to 8-3 while he finished with a 1.4 ERA. In 80 innings pitched, he struck out 84 batters and walked 23.
And he's not just a pitcher. He also led off for the Warriors and sported a .387 batting average with five doubles, a triple and home run.
"This was a real special year," said Riffe, "because we had a great season, finishing second in the state, and I got to do it with my teammates and friends.
"It was all the better because everyone played well and played their hearts out at state. I won't forget it."
And he's not done yet. This summer, Riffe will be playing with the Fullers Senior Legion team in Centralia and then continue in the fall at either Wenatchee Valley College or Grays Harbor.
Riffe leads an outstanding group of prep talent on the All-Area squad.
The other pitchers on the team are Bryce Avila of Onalaska and Jordan Bradley of the state's No. 3 Mossyrock Vikings.
The catcher is tough Tiger junior Tyler Gussin of Centralia.
There were a ton of stellar infielders and the final selections wound up being Chris Reynoldson of Rochester, Kirby White of W.F. West, Scott Jarvis of Onalaska, Bobby Johnson of Oakville, Ethan Smith of Mossyrock and Jeff Durham of Toledo.
The outfielders are Sean Meehan of Centralia, Jeremy Harper, the only freshman on the team, of Mossyrock, Andrew Compton of Pe Ell, and Eric Cox of Morton.
Centralia's Jake Heinricher holds down the DH slot, while Justin Eastman of Rochester is the utility player.
There are two coaches of the year who had memorable seasons in Mike Cagle of Rochester and Jay Henderson of Mossyrock.
Avila could have landed any number of spots on the team. He made it as a pitcher with his 8-3 record and 2.6 ERA. In 62 innings, he had 78 strikeouts and 40 walks.
At the plate, he was even more dangerous, setting Onalaska school records for home runs (15) and RBIs (42) while hitting a torrid .500, leading Onalaska to its first District baseball championship in 28 years and a berth in Regionals.
Bradley was the top pitcher on an excellent Mossyrock team. The 6-foot-6 junior right-hander had an 11-4 mound record with a 2.43 ERA. He threw an excellent complete-game in defeat against state champion DeSales, losing a gutty 5-3 decision.
As for the catcher, Centralia's Gussin is a top-flight linebacker in football and carries that mentality behind the plate. While he's tough, he also has skills with a quick release and strong arm, evidenced by throwing out 11 runners attempting to steal.
He also gets it done at the plate, with a .360 batting average.
The infielders are led by one tough third baseman in Reynoldson of Rochester.
One play in particular at state typified Reynoldson's approach to ground balls when he fearlessly stood his ground in front of a hot shot in the title game, took it hard off the chest yet still gathered it in and got the out at first.
Like all the All-Area infielders, he's also adept with the stick, packing a .425 average with 30 RBIs.
Johnson played with an outstanding Oakville team that rolled to the Pacific B League title. He was a key reason why with his .553 average that included a league-high five home runs and 20 RBIs. It's the second straight year he led the circuit in homers, belting nine last season.
Durham led the Toledo Indians to the 1A Regional Tournament after the Indians placed fourth in their league. The player called "Sweetums" played second base, carried a .420 batting average and did some pitching.
Smith was an infielder and pitcher for Mossyrock, and had a .393 average with nine doubles, a triple and a home run, plus 24 RBIs.
Onalaska's Jarvis wrapped up a stellar three-sport career at Ony by batting leadoff for the Loggers and hitting .330 with an on-base percentage of .485.
W.F. West junior Kirby White was a steady force at the plate for the Bearcats, hitting .350.
The All-Area outfield is fast, talented and big at the plate.
Centralia's Meehan followed up a stellar sophomore season with an equally-impressive junior year, hitting .453 with eight doubles, four homers and 25 RBIs, despite being a man with a bull's-eye on his back by all opposing pitchers.
Mossy's Harper is just starting a promising career and he did it in flashy fashion, leading Mossyrock with a .483 average that included seven doubles and a triple, while playing some outstanding defense.
Compton, of Pe Ell, led his team with a .460 average.
And Morton's Cox closed out his senior year by setting a Husky school record with his .574 batting average and another record with 39 hits. He also drove in 26 runs, had a slugging percentage of .794, and struck out just twice all year.
Heinricher, of Centralia, was the top DH in the Pac-9 League with a .441 batting average, with eight doubles and 27 RBIs.
Last but not least is Rochester's Eastman, the All-Area team's utility player.
Eastman is versatile, to say the least. Besides his prowess in baseball, he may be better known as a state 2A champion wrestler, having lost one bout in two years.
For the Warrior baseball team, he played shortstop and packed a .484 batting average and was not thrown out in 10 base-stealing attempts.
He played such a strong shortstop, and meant so much to the Warrior D, that he never pitched as much as he could have, since his absence affected the team too much in the field.
The co-coaches of the year earned the award for accomplishing the remarkably-difficult task of getting their teams to play their best at the end of the season, and by playing so well as a team.
Henderson, especially had his work cut out. Due to injuries early, the Vikings had trouble getting their defense set and took some lumps.
But as new players developed and old ones returned, Henderson molded the team into a cohesive, scrappy unit that took second at district, first at regionals and third in the state.
In four years, Cagle turned around a hapless Warrior program that was ravaged by a double-levy failure that accounted for several top players moving out of the area.
After a 7-12 season last year, he got the Warriors back in their usual winning mode and took them to a 20-6 mark and second in the state.
It was a good finale for Cagle, who is moving to Spokane to be with his family.
"These last three weeks, of all the time I've played and coached baseball, this has been the most enjoyable," he said. "These kids were so easy and fun to be around, it was fun all year long, even when we lost.
"I've been told by some coaches who have been to the Final Four … to the pinnacle … to savor the experience, because you never know if it may happen again. I'm just glad I got to experience it with these kids, who I wouldn't have traded for any other players in the state."
