One week after the Bearcats and Columbia River met in Ridgefield for the Class 2A District 4 title game, the two sides met again further south for the right to go to Bellingham. The winner ended up being the same.
The Rapids clipped W.F. West 6-3 at Propstra Stadium in Vancouver in a state quarterfinal contest. A year after reaching the semis, the Bearcats season came to an abrupt end.
“That was a really fun group of kids to coach,” W.F. West head coach Jesse Elam said. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort.”
There were a couple close calls that went against the Bearcats (19-7). In the bottom of the third, catcher Deacon Meller struck out to leave the bases loaded, but one pitch before, he launched a ball that ended up five feet foul.
They had the tying run on deck in the fifth and sixth innings and at the plate in the seventh and couldn’t get closer than three runs.
“We didn’t take care of the opportunities we had,” Elam said. We’re that close. Name of the game.”
Ross Kelley and Grady Westlund each registered three hits for W.F. West against the Rapids. Westlund drove in two runs and tossed two innings out of relief for starter Cole Ozretich, who went over four innings and struck out four.
In the opening round game versus Port Angeles, the Bearcats triumphed 8-7 in a thriller. They got going on the mound from the fourth inning onward behind the arm of Braden Jones.
The right-hander was the third pitcher Elam used. He allowed one hit and one unearned run to earn the victory.
“Braden was outstanding,” Elam said. “It was good to get a grip on that game. Once he got in and started doing his thing, it was game over.”
Miles Martin knocked in two on a single and Kelley also recorded a run-scoring base hit to tie the game at 7-7 in the fourth. The Bearcats grabbed the lead in the fifth on Jones’ RBI single. They plated four runs in the bottom of the first to grab an early advantage.
The Roughriders answered with five in the third, but were kept off the scoreboard from that point on. Kelley went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for W.F. West to pace its offense, who graduates three seniors from a runner-up Evergreen Conference group.
Yet the goals remain the same.
“It is Bearcat baseball. The expectation is we’ll play hard and be tough,” Elam said. “I think that our guys have bought into that and we’re getting better at it every year.”
