I-5 Toyota Mountain Dew settled for second place for the second straight weekend, falling in the championship game of the Wood Bat Classic 6-3 to RC Premier at Thorco Field in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho on Monday.
The Dewers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, but immediately surrendered a three-spot in the bottom half of the cram, and RC Cooper got its lead out to four runs before I-5 Toyota scratched one back in the seventh.
Conner Holmes (Napavine) went 2 for 3 with a walk and two runs scored at the top of the lineup, capping a three-hit day — and a 12-hit tournament. W.F. West’s Ross Kelley went 2 for 3 immediately behind him, but the rest of the I-5 lineup combined for just three hits.
I-5 went with a W.F. West trio on the hill. Connor Coleman took the loss, going three innings and striking out six, but allowing two hits and six walks. Weston Potter got an out, before giving the to Alex Stafford to go the rest of the way. Behind them, the defense committed five errors, leading to four of RC Premier’s six runs being unearned.
The Dewers, who swept through pool play with five wins — four by run-rule — in three days, started Monday off with one more dominant outing, beating Lumberman 16u 11-2 in five innings in the tournament semifinals.
That game was the complete opposite of the championship, with I-5 giving up two in the top of the first before coming back to take the lead for good in the bottom of the inning with seven runs. The Lumbermen helped the Dewers out with seven errors, while Kelley, Tate Quarnstrom (Rochester), and Carlos Vallejo (Centralia) all put out two-hit performances.
Centralia’s Brady Sprague did all of the work on the mound, striking out nine, walking five, and allowing four hits in the shortened complete game.
