Kennewick High baseball takes second at 3A WA state championship tournament

Only one team, its players and coaches, are ever really truly satisfied at the end of the high school baseball season.

That would be the state champion.

On Saturday night, Mercer Island jumped on Kennewick for four runs in the top of the first inning en route to an 8-4 victory at Gesa Stadium in Pasco, winning the Class 3A state championship.

The Lions got two hits from Danny Dickinson (who hit a solo home run in the fifth), and two hits each from sophomores Dylin McIntire and Dane McClure.

It just wasn’t enough to overcome what was a 7-1 Mercer Island lead through three innings.

The Islanders are led by Dominic Woody, a Richland High graduate who starred at the University of Washington, played some minor league baseball, and has been at the helm of Mercer Island’s baseball program for 10 years.

He now has two state titles in the past eight years at Mercer Island, also winning in 2015.

This one was special for Woody, whose team (19-6) entered the state tournament as the No. 12 seed.

“We were ranked inside the top 10 in RPI all year until the district tournament,” said Woody. “Who knew what (the RPI) was going to be like using it this first year. I knew we were better than a 12 seed.”

On the Kennewick side, the Lions were a No. 3 seed coming into the tournament.

They finished with a 23-4 record, and averaged over 10 runs per game.

Kennewick baseball coach Lenny Ayres wasn’t sure what to expect back in February when his Lions began to prepare for the 2022 season.

“Going into the season, I knew we had really good senior leadership,” said Ayres. “But we had a bunch of young players. If you’re going to have youth in the Mid-Columbia Conference, it’s going to be tough. I mean, we start a freshman (Dane Chavez) at third base.”

In fact, Ayres started just three seniors in his lineup — Danny Dickinson, Chance Oldham and Kyan Bowe. The rest were four sophomores, a junior and a freshman.

But those young players really stepped up.

“Going into the year, I thought we’d be building. But I didn’t think we’d be playing in the state championship,” said Ayres.

After the game Ayres told his players that he was proud of them, “playing in that game, in that atmosphere. Don’t hang your heads.”

The turning point this season, he said, was when the Lions swept Kamiakin, 6-2 and 8-7, on April 8.

“That’s when we knew we could be pretty good,” said Ayres. “That’s when the guys got really serious, staying after practice until at least 6 p.m. to work on their game.”

Dickinson also admitted that he wasn’t sure before the season started that the Lions could get to the title game.

But that same Kamiakin twinbill sweep caught his attention too.

“Practice got pretty serious after that,” he said.

They would hang around, he said, and play Wiffleball as a group.

“It was a way for us to bond,” said Dickinson, who is headed to Ottawa University in Arizona in the fall to play baseball.

“That was definitely one of the most important things to us this season. We never let the younger guys think we upperclassmen were too cool for them. It was crazy how the underclassmen stepped up this season,” he said.

Ayres admitted late Saturday night that this team ranks “right at the top” of all the teams he’s had.

“The chemistry they had,” he said. “I’ve never been around a team that has liked each other so much.”

Next season

While guys like Dickinson, Oldham and Bowe move on, the Kennewick lineup is loaded for 2023.

“We’re ecstatic,” Ayres said. “Our future is bright.”

Saturday just didn’t work out.

It just didn’t end the way the Lions wanted to.

“To win a state championship, you’ve got to be a little lucky too,” admits Dickinson.

The Lions just didn’t have any of that luck on Saturday.

RICHLAND 3, SKYLINE 1

The Bombers bounced back from their 7-3 semifinal loss on Friday to Olympia to win the third-place game.

Richland scored twice in the second inning, when Troy Molnaa’s bunt scored Chris Daniels. Ethan Ammerman would also score on a Skyline error.

The Bombers added a third run the next inning, as Daniels hit a sacrifice fly to score Joey Weissenfels.

Head coach Grant Richardson’s Bombers finished with a 21-6 record.

Boys soccer

PASCO 2, WENATCHEE 1: Hector Rodriguez and Alex Martinez each scored goals as Pasco beat Wenatchee to finish third in the 4A state tournament.

The Bulldogs lost their semifinal match on Friday, falling 2-1 (5-4 in penalty kicks) to Bellarmine Prep, which would go on to win the state title on Saturday with a 1-0 victory over Skyline.

Matt Potter’s Bulldogs will finish with a 20-2 record this season.

Note: Over the next few days, I’ll recap some of the top state-tournaments events and highlights of our area athletes.

This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 11:50 AM.