PE ELL — He’s ran over and past opponents on the football field. He’s taken big shots as a key contributor on the hardwood. On the diamond, there’s one accomplishment Toledo High School junior Eli Weeks was missing.
Hitting a home run as a prep.
“I was just sprinting (on the bases) like I usually do,” Weeks said.
He picked a grand time to do it.
The catcher launched a grand slam over the fence to straightaway center field in the Riverhawks’ first game and finished with 10 runs batted over two contests to help the C2BL’s third-seeded group reach the Class 2B District 4 semifinals.
Toledo trounced pesky fifth-seeded Onalaska 16-6 in five innings, then won a wacky 16-9 quarterfinal against the P2BL’s No. 2 seed Pe Ell/Willapa Valley.
“That was pretty sweet,” Weeks said.
The 32 runs over the 12 innings is the second-most the Riverhawks (15-7) have tallied this season in a two-game set. They finished with 21 hits and overcame a grand total of seven errors, six versus the Loggers.
Now, Toledo is a win away from the state tournament. Standing in its way is an all too familiar foe in Adna. First pitch is slated for 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Napavine High School.
“I’m pretty proud, honestly," outfielder and pitcher Rohan Feigenbaum said. “We came out with a lot of energy.”
There was plenty of wackiness, mainly in the quarterfinal.
Two bats were reviewed for being illegal. Seven combined runs were scored in the fourth, ten in the sixth. There was a collision in a rundown. Moms were chirping at players and at other moms.
Welcome to playoff baseball in SW Washington.
“That was kind of a funky start to the game, for sure,” Toledo head coach Mack Gaul said.
Four runs in the top of the first against PWV (12-6) ace Liam Smaciarz put the Riverhawks in the driver’s seat early. The right-hander allowed seven hits and three earned runs, but kept his pitch count to under 70.
Which was the plan going in, per Titans head coach Kent Smaciarz.
“All along, we get close to 70 pitches, we’re gonna pull the plug,” Coach Smaciarz said. “They were lighting him up.”
Down 7-1, PWV began its comeback bid with a five-run fourth on the backs of an RBI single by Brayden Ruddell then two straight bases loaded walks followed by back-to-back hit by pitches. Still, it never got a timely hit.
It left 11 runners on base.
“We get one hit in the gap, we’re breaking it open and it never materialized,” Coach Smaciarz said. “Of course I’m happy we had the guts to climb back into it. Just got to play cleaner baseball, play a complete game.”
Riverhawks reliever Isaac Parmantier got out of the inning to keep the cushion. They added two more in the fifth and a seven-run outburst in the sixth. Masson Ruiz roped a two-run double and the rest of the tallies came with two outs.
Feigenbaum had two doubles and scored four times while Weeks, Ruiz, Nico Acosta, Brady Weeks and Ryker Sorenson all drove in multiple runs.
“One-through-nine, we smacked the ball all day,” Gaul said. “You can turn (it) on at any time.
In the Round of 12 contest versus Onalaska, it had early potential for an upset.
The upstart Loggers (5-15) grabbed a 2-1 lead on a two-run double by Dakota Kramer. Two-out RBI knocks by Blaze Underhill and Desean Stewart, then Broden Vickers scoring on an error made it 5-1.
When the two sides met in the regular season, the first two games of the season, it was a beatdown.
“I thought we batted well today,” Onalaska head coach Weylin Womack said. “I’m proud of them. Nobody expected us to be here and we were in it for a while.”
Two consecutive bases loaded walks and an RBI groundout by Feigenbaum made it 5-4. Eli Weeks’ grand slam ended up being the hit that put Toledo in front for good. It added three in the third, two in the fourth and Brady Weeks’ RBI single enacted the run-rule.
“All of us have been putting time in together and they’ve been hitting pretty solid lately,” Eli Weeks said. “I knew we’d recover with our hits.”
Austin Reed ended with three RBIs out of the No. 9 spot for Toledo. Acosta pitched over two innings of relief and allowed just one hit and three walks to pair with five strikeouts. It drew 11 walks in the morning tilt.
“I knew we had the confidence to come back and the ability to,” Feigenbaum said.
The Loggers’ season came to an end and seven seniors departed the program. After not winning a game last year, they are hopeful this trip to districts serves as a springboard.
“The younger guys we got, we got to learn how to finish games,” Womack said. “We got a really good young core coming up.”
Meanwhile, PWV faces Raymond/South Bend in an elimination game on Tuesday in Adna. The Titans cruised in both meetings on May 3, recording a 15-2 and 18-0 sweep.
“The expectation is we're gonna put up a brunch of runs. Lot of confidence we can take care of business,” coach Smaciarz said. “This team is very capable, we got all the right athletes, got the right guys.”
