Centralia I-5 Toyota/Mountain Dew AA needed a couple doses of heroics in a game that had to get pushed to a new day due to rain, but came through in the clutch to beat Kennewick 4-3 at the state tournament.
After the Dusters came back to tie the game in the top of the seventh, Brady Sprague (Centralia) drew a walk to put the winning run on base, and Conner Holmes (Napavine) knocked him in with a two-out walk-off single.
Holmes finished the game 3 for 4 to once again lead the Dewers in the hit column from the top of the lineup. Alex Stafford (W.F. West) went 2 for 3.
I-5 Toyota bounced out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but didn’t manage anything in the following five frames. Connor Coleman put up four zeroes to start his day on the hill but ran into trouble in the fifth and left in the sixth, finishing with two runs charged to his name. Ashton Demarest got the Dewers out of the sixth but allowed a run in the seventh, and with the bases loaded and one out, I-5 turned to Tate Quarnstrom (Rochester) to get them out of the jam.
Quarnstrom quickly recorded a strikeout, then induced an easy pop-up to leave all three runners on the bags.
Dewars lose second game of day
I-5’s unbeaten run to open play at the state tournament came to an end in its second game of the day Tuesday, falling to Othello 11-6 in a rematch of its first-round game.
The Red Raiders struck for four runs out of the gate and led 5-0 after two innings and 8-1 midway through the fifth. I-5 found its offense with five runs in the final three innings, but couldn’t do anything to slow Othello down.
Holmes, Stafford, Quarnstrom, and Weston Potter all logged two-hit games; Potter had three RBIs, and Stafford had two.
Cal Bullock took the loss after 4 ⅓ innings of work. Thanks to five errors in the field, only four of the eight runs he allowed were earned.
Now with a loss to its name, I-5 Toyota will play a loser-out game at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.
