It was a day chock full of heroic efforts as unheralded Rochester came through with perhaps its best day of baseball this season — maybe in four years — as the Warriors won two straight to claim the 2A Regional Baseball championship at W.F. West Saturday, to earn a berth in the 2A Final Four.
In the first game of the day, the Warriors got terrific pitching from Brian Riffe and a huge two-run single by Chris Reynoldson to hang on and beat Meridian 2-1.
Then, after Chimacum defeated Elma 1-0 behind a no-hitter by Cowboy pitcher Arlo Evasick, Rochester got yet another great mound effort, this time from sophomore Jordan Everson, plus errorless defense and more clutch hitting, to win an exciting title game, 5-3.
The win sends Rochester back to the State 2A Final Four for the first time since 2000, when the Warriors made it to the title game but lost to Elma.
"This is why you play the game," said Warrior coach Mike Cagle, referring to the scene on the field when his team mobbed Everson on the mound after he recorded the final out on a strikeout.
"As the kids were running out there, I knew there was going to be a lot of jumping on Jordan, I just told them not to hurt him."
Rochester will now move on to Yakima Friday and Saturday, opening on Friday at Yakima County Stadium against a special foe — Ephrata.
Cagle played his prep ball at Ephrata under legendary coach Dave Johnson, who is in his final year before retiring.
"It's just amazing the way it's all worked out," said Cagle on Sunday. "To win the regional title and now to go to the finals and play Ephrata. I didn't sleep at all last night and I expect that's how it'll be the next few days."
Rochester 5, Chimacum 3
Everson started out on the mound, kind of like he did last week at district when he came on in relief against Hockinson — he didn't change speeds while he struggled to get comfortable.
As a result, Chimacum drew first blood with a run in the first.
After a one-out single, Evasick drilled a run-scoring double for the Cowboys.
"I talked to Jordan and told him to not be afraid to go to his curve and off-speed stuff, and to not be afraid to start out with it," Cagle said.
Everson settled down and held the Cowboys scoreless on six straight outs over the next two innings.
Meanwhile, Rochester, which was no-hit for the first two frames, came alive with four huge runs in the third.
Riffe boarded with a walk and Nick Katt got on the hard way by getting beaned on the helmet.
Justin Eastman singled in one run and then Rochester got lucky when Chris Reynoldson's high pop fly to shallow right dropped in, scoring another.
Ryan Knutz and Jarin Ruiz followed with back-to-back RBI singles.
Despite the big inning, it could have been bigger as the Warriors had runners on second and third with no outs and didn't score again. There was a strikeout, followed by an unsuccessful squeeze attempt, and a comebacker to the pitcher.
The comfy 4-1 lead was short-lived as the Cowboys made it exciting with two runs in the fourth on a two-run double with no outs. This time Rochester escaped further damage with a flyout, a botched suicide squeeze (bunted right back to the pitcher for the out at home) and a flyout.
"That was a huge jam we got out of there," said Cagle.
"In this tournament, we did a great job of minimizing damage."
Two innings later, Rochester added a critical insurance run thanks to Charlie Slaymaker leading off with a double smashed over the center fielder's head.
He moved to third on an 0-2 looper by Mortenson just over second, and then Mortenson stole second. Devon Willadsen hit a high infield chopper but no runners advanced and the bases were loaded.
Chimacum almost got out of the jam, getting two outs, but then the Cowboy pitcher kept throwing over to third to keep Slaymaker close (about six times) and then he finally threw one away and Slaymaker strolled in.
"I wanted to go shake his (the pitcher's) hand," said Cagle. "We had two outs and two strikes on the batter … that gave us a big, big run."
Chimacum made a gallant effort in the bottom of the seventh, down 5-3, when its leadoff hitter singled. But the next batter hit a made-to-order double-play grounder to Eastman at short, near the bag, and he touched second and tossed to first for the twin-killing.
Everson got the next batter on strikes and it was pandemonium.
"Rochester may have had a lot of success in baseball in the past, but we haven't the past three years so we're really going to soak this in," said Cagle, in his fourth and final season. "This team, with mostly the same players, was 7-12 last year and has come a long way. The guys have really worked their tails off. I couldn't be prouder."
For the game, Everson gave up six hits with no walks (one hit batter) and five strikeouts.
Rochester 2, Meridian 1
This win was a team effort, with huge contributions from Riffe (7-3) and Reynoldson.
Riffe, the sturdy senior left-hander, went the distance, flipping a four-hitter with one walk and eight strikeouts.
Meridian pitcher Cole Patterson also threw well, giving up just three Warrior hits in five and two-thirds innings.
The big hit belonged to Reynoldson, Rochester's cleanup hitter.
In the second inning, Reynoldson struck out looking at a curveball and wasn't about to let that happen again when he came to the plate in the third with two runners aboard (Willadsen led the inning with a double).
Patterson had a 2-2 count on Reynoldson and threw another curve. It was fading low and away from Reynoldson but he went with the pitch and slapped it hard up the middle for a two-run single.
"I knew I had to make contact this time," said Reynoldson with a shy smile. "I was just trying to breathe and keep my cool. This pitcher was pretty good. He had a good breaking ball and had us guessing."
Cagle said he just reminded Reynoldson to protect the plate with two strikes.
"I told him that kid was always around the zone, so if it was close to go after it. I couldn't be happier for Chris. He's one of the top leaders on the team and a clutch RBI guy. He showed that today."
Those wound up being the only runs as the Warriors never threatened the final three innings.
Besides Reynoldson, Slaymaker and Willadsen had the only other hits.
Riffe kept the Trojans in check until the fourth when they got their only run on two hits.
Brent Froberg doubled to start the sixth for Meridian but Riffe clutched up and got the No. 3 hitter out on strikes and induced the No. 4 and 5 hitters to fly out.
He also had a 1-2-3 seventh, capped with two strikeouts.
"He's so competitive," said Cagle. "What a great effort."
