NAPAVINE — On the first pitch of the game, Toledo’s Rohan Feigenbaum hit a line drive to left field for a leadoff single.
Napavine’s Cal Bullock took a deep breath and a moment to reset on the mound, and he eventually stranded Feigenbaum on third to end the inning without allowing a run.
It was the closest Toledo got to scoring against Bullock all game.
The senior spun a gem on his home field on Wednesday, throwing a one-hit shutout to lead the Tigers over the Riverhawks in a 2-0 win.
With the win, Napavine is not only two games clear of third-place Toledo in the Central 2B League standings, but it is tied with Adna for first place.
“He’s kind of a big-game guy,” Napavine coach Brian Demarest said. “He had command of his pitches, his slider looked really good, and his fastball was crisp.”
After the leadoff knock, Bullock didn’t allow another hit, only hitting two batters and walking two others. After a one-out walk put two Riverhawks on base in the fourth, he went on to retire each of the last 11 batters he faced.
That stretch began with a pair of strikeouts to end the fourth and four more punchouts across the final three innings. The right-hander finished the day with 12 strikeouts in his first complete game of the season.
“I’ve been putting a lot of time in with my stamina,” Bullock said. “It’s really paid off these last couple of weeks.”
Offensively, the Tigers didn’t generate a ton of run support, but they did jump out in front early.
Beckett Landram hit a leadoff double to open the first, and he came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Grady Wilson. Two innings later, Landram singled, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a Bullock groundout.
While it wasn’t a crooked number, the support still gave Bullock a “boost of confidence” on the bump.
“I feel like I’m controlling the game more than just trying to protect the game,” Bullock said.
Toledo’s Joaquin Acosta settled in on the bump himself, though, holding the Riverhawks to just one hit over the final three frames.
Acosta also pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and the two runs while walking three and striking out five.
“He’s a gamer,” Toledo coach Mack Gaul said. “He’ll battle one through nine … He’ll throw any pitch in any count, and he did that today.”
Offensively, it’s the second game in a row that the Riverhawks have struggled at the plate. In the two games against Napavine, they combined to notch just four hits and one run while striking out 21 times, including Wednesday’s dozen.
“Way too many strikeouts,” Gaul said. “Cal’s one of the better pitchers in the league, and he kept us off balance, but we have to do a better job of putting the ball in play … Make them make a play, and we didn’t do that today.”
Now at 9-3 in league play, Toledo (10-4) is two games back of both Napavine and Adna, who are in the top two spots at 11-1 apiece. The top two C2BL teams will earn a first-round bye in the district tournament, which would advance a team past the single-elimination portion of the bracket and put them as little as two wins away from a state berth and a trip to the district title game.
The Riverhawks will have their chance to get back up, though. After facing Mossyrock in two games on Friday and Monday (with a non-league matchup with Elma in between on Saturday), they’ll play Adna next Wednesday, April 29, and next Friday, May 1.
“We still control our own destiny in that aspect,” Gaul said when talking about the bye. “But we have to take care of business. We gotta start swinging the bat better.”
In the other dugout, Demarest had a different approach to the bye.
“I don’t really see the difference between coming in first, second, third, or fourth,” Demarest said. “We’re gonna have to beat Adna, Toledo, Toutle, or Ilwaco (in districts). That’s who it's gonna be.”
With so many crucial games on the horizon, including a series against Adna that starts on Friday, Demarest was pleased to see his team come out with a win in a tight matchup on Wednesday.
“It was good baseball,” Demarest said. “Unfortunately, good, bad or otherwise, there’s been so many lopsided games that our kids haven’t had a lot of pressure on them. They haven’t had to deal with adversity. They had to come up big, so it was nice to see that and see how we reacted.”
Napavine (15-1, 11-1 C2BL) and Adna (14-1, 11-1 C2BL) will play in Adna on Friday before heading to Napavine on Monday for Game 2. If one team takes both games, they’ll clinch the league title and the No. 1 seed heading into the district tournament.
“It’s gonna be a good one,” Bullock said. “I’m pretty excited for it.”
