Sunday, May. 25, 2008

Kennewick baseball saves best for last

By Kevin Anthony, Herald staff writer

SEATTLE -- Everyone expects their first state title to be memorable, but it will be a long time before anyone forgets Kennewick and Kelso.

The Lions and Hilanders scored a parade of runs Saturday evening that Safeco Field may never see again, culminating in Kennewick's 24-12 rout in the 3A title game for the school's first state baseball crown.

"We played our best baseball in the playoffs," a jubilant Luke Loftus said after scooping up a bottle of Safeco dirt. "We picked the right time to get hot. And obviously this is the best game we've played -- ever."

The 36 runs scored in the game is a record for a state championship, but it only begins to tell the story of a game that started with a bizarre amount of offense and got ridiculous from there.

To wit: four balks, four hit batters, five-half innings where at least nine batters came to the plate, 10 errors (the scoreboard missed one), 11 pitchers, 30 hits, 35 players, 90 batters to make the requisite 42 outs -- and a running time of nearly three hours that delayed the start of the 4A title game by 52 minutes.

"They swung the heck out of it today," Kennewick coach A.J. Marquardt said of his team's 21-hit attack. "They would not be denied.

"We knew it wasn't going to get away from us."

The hitting highlights for the Lions (19-7) are numerous: Robbie Mitchell went 5-for-6 and scored in each of the first five innings; Loftus, Trux French and Joe Driver each drove in four runs; four players had four or more hits; every starter had a hit and all but one scored a run.

"We've swung the bats well the second half of the season," said Driver, who went 4-for-4. "Our pitching has been real good, but our bats have been off and on. But the last four games, everyone put it together."

It was clear early on this wasn't going to be a typical big-school championship game. The first two innings took more than an hour. The second inning alone saw 19 batters come to the plate as the two teams plated 10 runners.

Kennewick scored four runs in the first, second and third innings, then got five more in the fourth.

By the start of the fifth, the 17-7 score matched the previous high run total for the 3A championship (Kennedy over Lake Stevens by the same score in 1999) and was within reach of the 32 combined runs in Kiona-Benton's 28-4 win over Colton in the 1973 B title game.

The competitive portion of the day was brief. Austin Pentecost had just one hit for the Lions, but it was the biggest of the game, a two-out, two-strike double in the first that cleared the bases and opened a 4-0 margin.

Kennewick led 8-0 when its defense bottomed out in the second, leading to six unearned runs for Kelso (25-2) and an early move for Pentecost from pitcher to second.

Ean Arnold came in to finish the inning and limited the Hilanders to a single run over the next three frames -- a pitching accomplishment equivalent to a no-hitter in this game.

Kennewick responded to Kelso's outburst with, of course, four more runs, including a two-run triple by Landon Scott, and sent nine batters to the plate for the second consecutive inning.

By the time Kelso scored five runs in the sixth -- ending the game's only remaining drama by setting the scoring record -- it still left the Hilanders three grand slams short.

Kelso came into the game hoping to win its first title since 1995 but instead settled for repeating its runner-up finish of 2000.

Kennewick, which finished second in the Columbia Basin 3A League, was playing in just its second state title game. The Lions finished second in 1997.

Kennewick 24, Kelso 12

Kennewick 444 552 0 -- 24 21 6

Kelso 060 105 0 -- 12 9 4

Austin Pentecost, Ean Arnold (2), Jake Nelson (6), Manny Malito (7), Dane Westermeyer (7) and Joe Driver; Chris Armstead, David Hull (2), Garett Crayne (4), Brandon Sanders (5), John Coldwell (6), Brandon Middleton (7) and Cody O'Neill. Highlights--Robbie Mitchell (Ken) 5x6, 2 RBI, 5R; Luke Loftus (Ken) 3x5, 2B, 4 RBI; Landon Scott (Ken) 3B, 3 RBI, 3R; Trux French (Ken) 3x5, 2 2B, 4 RBI, 4R; Driver (Ken) 4x4, 2B, 4 RBI, 2R; Pentecost (Ken) 2B, 3 RBI; Jesus Morgan (Kel) 3x4, 2B, 3B, 5 RBI.