TENINO – It was not the prettiest day at the plate for Centralia’s Rocco Waring.
Six times standing in the batter's box, four strikeouts and one walk. Three of the times he waltzed back to the dugout was on a looking strike three.
His other plate appearance?
Only the biggest one of the night and the junior-to-be came through.
Waring put a dribbler down the third base side in play and the go-ahead two runs crossed home in the top of the seventh inning to vault Centralia to an 18-12 and 10-0 sweep over Tenino on Monday in a summer ball doubleheader at Tenino High School.
“At crunch time, you gotta like that,” Centralia head coach Jake LeDuc said. “That’s the thing we’re trying to work on. We competed when it mattered most.”
Waring’s single came after Centralia drew five consecutive walks and trimmed a six-run deficit to one thanks to those walks and a pair of balks. Centralia added three more runs on more walks and an outfield error.
In total, the seventh frame featured 12 runs scored, 11 walks and two wild pitches. Four balls were put in play.
“Our discipline was good,” LeDuc said. “We moved station to station. Took advantage of their miscues, kind of the thing that’s been happening to us at times. It was nice to flip that on someone else.”
The Trappers used several pitchers in the inning to try and get out of it. They got a runner to third base in the bottom half and that was all against Jon Leedy.
It was a stark contrast from the first six innings when Tenino was in complete control of the opener.
“If you don’t throw strikes and you don’t make plays when you do throw strikes, it is a bad combo and we got a sneak peek of that,” Trappers head coach Ryan Schlesser said. “I don’t feel like we were competitive in the strike zone.”
Trailing 3-1 after 3.5 innings, Tenino plated seven in the fourth behind two-run hits by Henesi Caywood, Kellan Johnson and Tyler Lewis. After Centralia scored three in the sixth, the Trappers got all those runs back in the bottom half.
Lewis finished Game 1 with three RBIs and Johnson went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Dayton Gardener, a Rainier player, struck out six batters in three-plus innings on the mound.
“We looked the best we’ve looked this summer,” Schlesser said. “We swung it better and we were playing a little small ball.”
Centralia kept the momentum from the rally in a shortened three-inning nightcap due to darkness with a seven-run outburst in the first.
Its first four batters reached via base on balls, then Ruger Culp and Mykal Sneller roped back-to-back two-run singles to break the game open. In the third with the bases loaded, Terrell Sanders cleared them with a triple.
Colton Weiss, a Rochester prep, struck out six and allowed just six baserunners.
“We’re going to force teams to play catch,” LeDuc said.
Most of the roster LeDuc is coaching will be what the 2025 high school team will be, minus four Rochester kids. That group of Tigers have been playing together since little league.
The bonding aspect isn’t paramount over June and July.
“Honestly, we have a quiet group by nature,” LeDuc said. “They don’t talk a ton. There hasn’t been an adjustment. It is more about let’s go do our job.”
Tenino’s bunch is many of its younger kids. Fresh off a third place finish at the Class 1A state tournament, Schlesser called this team “green” in terms of experience.
Many times on Monday, Schlesser went over fundamentals from the third-base coaching box and dugout.
“This is the time to work on things and get better at a lot of the little stuff,” he said. “The kids enjoy being with each other, so that’s a plus. If we can show a little bulldog by the end of the summer, I’d be very happy with that.”
