Sunday, May. 11, 2008

Kennewick wins 3A baseball regional

By Rene Ferran, Herald staff writer

Form finally held true in the 3A Eastern Regional baseball tournament Saturday evening in the championship game.

That worked out well for Kennewick, which won its first title since 2004 with a 10-4 victory over Kamiakin at Roy Johnson Field.

The Lions (15-7) are the No. 1 state seed to next weekend's Yakima regional at Parker Field.

They will play Ferndale at 1 p.m. Saturday.

"It'll be nice to play someone outside our league," said Lions coach A.J. Marquardt. "There's not one easy game where you can coast when you're playing someone in our league."

The Braves (14-8) will find that out in their first state game at 10 a.m. at Parker Field when they'll take on a red-hot Hanford team.

The Falcons, the CBL No. 5 seed into regionals, upset top-seeded Southridge 13-12 earlier in the day, then knocked off West Valley 4-0 to grab the third and final state berth -- their first state trip since 2001.

Hanford (12-11), which started the year 4-9 and lost its first five league games, has won six in a row and eight of its last 10 -- including a split with Kamiakin a couple weeks ago.

"We coaches always believed we were a good team, and we've been working hard to get these guys to believe it," said Falcons coach Tom DeWitz. "We never made it easy on them. We had high expectations for them. We're finally playing to our potential."

Kennewick 10, Kamiakin 4

The Braves had numerous chances to get to Lions starter Austin Pentecost, but they stranded 10 runners — including leaving the bases loaded in the second inning and pushing just one run across.

Kennewick got that run back with one swing of the bat. Joe Driver’s long blast to left field tied the game at 1, and Dustin Long followed with a double and scored on Pentecost’s groundout.

“Austin escaped the half-inning before, and then Joe gives us a shot in the arm with his home run,” Marquardt said. “Austin did a good job of keeping his composure and competing. He did what we needed him to do, and that’s give us four strong innings.”

The Lions then scored four runs in the third, with Long’s two-run bloop single to right followed by an RBI double by Pentecost that knocked out Braves starter Zach Edens.

Kamiakin scratched out two runs in the fourth but again left the bases loaded and got another run back in the sixth. The Lions put the game away in the bottom of the sixth. Pentecost hit a leadoff homer to right, Jarrod Mendenhall singled home a run and Landon Scott singled in two runs to cap the scoring.

“We just didn’t get a key hit, and they hit the ball well,” said Kamiakin coach Rex Easley. “They’ve got a nice baseball team. Hopefully, we’ll get another shot at them.”

Championship

Kamiakin 010 201 0 -- 4 5 1

Kennewick 024 004 x -- 10 10 3

Zach Edens, Kody Young (3) and Maxx Garrett; Austin Pentecost, Jake Nelson (5), Dane Westermeyer and Joe Driver. Highlights--Jason Jones (Kam) 2x2, 2B, RBI; Driver (Ke) 2x2, HR, 2R, 2 RBI; Dustin Long (Ke) 2x3, 2B, 2 RBI; Pentecost (Ke) 2x3, 2B, HR, 3 RBI; KC Hooper (Ke) 2B.

Hanford 4, West Valley 0

The Falcons bussed down from Southridge to Roy Johnson, then picked up where they left off with the bats, scoring three runs in the first inning. Zach Browne delivered the big blow — a two-run single that started the scoring.

Browne has been nursing a pulled groin much of the season. While he isn’t playing the field, his bat has been important to Hanford’s late-season success.

“We have to have his stick in the lineup,” DeWitz said. “He was big for us in both games today.” Four pitchers combined on a six-hitter, with Chalk coming on in the sixth to close out the game.

Third-place game

West Valley 000 000 0 -- 0 6 0

Hanford 310 000 x -- 4 7 0

Kyle Siekawitch, Adam Frenzel (2), Kyle Jones (6) and Nick Clark; Nick Betzsold, Drew Foraker (3), James Rogers (5), Travis Chalk (6) and Rogers, Brian Elzie (5). Highlights--Tucker Leppa (WV) 2x3, 2B; Rogers (H) 2x3; Betzsold (H) 2x3, RBI; Zach Browne (H) 2-run 2B in 1st.

Hanford 13, Southridge 12

The Falcons jumped out to leads of 8-0 and 10-2, only to watch Southridge roar back to tie the game with a five-run seventh inning, capped by Thomas Henderson’s three-run triple off the top of the wall in right field.

But in the eighth, Travis Chalk led off with a single, moved to second on a passed ball and scored on Tyler Stark’s single to give Hanford the win.

Southridge HS

Hanford 082 002 01 -- 13 16 2

Southridge 023 020 50 -- 12 11 0

Chalk, Foraker (3), Jeremy Burk (5), Rogers (7) and Elzie, Rogers (5), Elzie (7); Brandon Call, Tyler Roberts (3) and Devin Jones, Kyle Sani (8). Highlights--Elzie (H) 2x3, 2B, 2 RBI; Rogers (H) 2x5, 3B, 3 RBI; Zane McEachern (H) 2x4, 2B, 2R; Jones (S) 2x5; Thomas Henderson (S) 3x4, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI; Jay Fox (S) 3x3, 2B, 4R.