The Rainier High School baseball team’s 2025 season came to a conclusion Tuesday afternoon at the hands of the Toutle Lake Ducks 9-2 in the 2B District 4 consolation bracket.
Toutle Lake jumped on Rainier starter Hunter Howell from the first at-bat, as the first two batters walked and scored. Howell’s third walk of the first inning scored the first run, while the second came home on a wild pitch.
Rainier scored its first run in the second inning, with senior Dayton Gardner scoring his final career run on an error on a groundball hit by Wyatt McIntyre. But with the bases loaded, Kaden Goodman struck out swinging to end the inning.
The Ducks drove in two runs in the third before adding three in the fifth and two in the sixth. Ducks pitcher Easton White stymied the Mountaineers offense in a complete-game effort, striking out 10 batters without surrendering a walk.
In his final start, Howell allowed seven runs (four earned) on six hits while striking out five and walking four. Rainier finishes the season with a 9-12 record and its first win in the district tournament since 2019 and its most wins in a season since that same year. Three Mountaineer seniors graduate: Howell, Gardner and Skylar Weschler.
