Kennewick, Walla Walla win MCC district baseball crowns

Gerald Hein picked a great time to have his best day against the Southridge Suns.

Kennewick’s big lefty, who had never beaten Southridge in his high school baseball career, tossed a complete-game four-hitter Saturday and got plenty of run support in a 10-1 win over the Suns in the Mid-Columbia Conference 3A district title game at Roy Johnson Field.

Every Lion in the lineup got a hit, 18 of them all told as Kennewick (19-2) followed its MCC regular-season title with the district crown and the top seed to next Saturday’s regional against the Greater Spokane League.

Kennewick will play GSL No. 1 Mount Spokane (15-6) for a trip to state. Southridge (17-5) will play GSL No. 2 Shadle Park (12-9) in a loser-out game, then take on the loser of the other game for the second berth to state.

Earlier Saturday, the Suns belted Kamiakin 11-1 as ace Bradley Morgan pitched his own four-hit complete game.

But the headliner Saturday was Hein in the title game.

“He was amazing out there,” Kennewick shortstop Dillon Plew said. “He was challenging hitters. I don’t think he walked a batter (he didn’t). It was awesome.”

Hein faced the minimum through three innings, erasing a first-inning error with a pickoff at first. He struck out five, hit a batter and generally had an easy day of it against one of the top lineups in the MCC.

“It’s motivation,” the senior said of his 0-4 record against Southridge coming in. “It’s motivation to do my best.”

The hits kept coming

The Lions got on the board early with Trent Sellers’ RBI double in the first, Plew’s run-scoring double in the second and his RBI single in the fourth.

Southridge cut the lead to 3-1 in the fifth when Jake Kirchhoff hammered the first pitch of the inning to the gap in left-center for a double and later scored on Ethan Sanders’ sacrifice fly.

But whatever momentum the Suns had was eclipsed in the bottom of the inning as Sellers, Garrett Dixon and Tyler Detloff started off with consecutive singles to get the run back. One out later, freshman No. 8 hitter Talon Lafontaine singled in a pair of runs for a 6-1 lead.

Kennewick piled on four more runs in the sixth.

“We knew it would be close, but you never know when those runs are going to come in a game,” said Plew, who was among the seven Kennewick batters with multiple hits and four Lions with two or more RBIs. “We knew that if we kept hitting the ball hard, they’d start to drop and we’d score some runs.”

Sellers and Detloff each had three hits, and Lafontaine drove in three runs.

Suns win opener

Job No. 1 for Southridge was getting past Kamiakin (13-9) in the opener to ensure that its season would last past the weekend.

“We showed up and played good baseball in the first game,” Suns coach Tim Sanders said. “Five straight hits out of the gate set the tone.”

Kyle Harvey hit a two-run double and Kirchhoff a two-run single during a five-run first inning for the Suns. They struck for six more runs over the next three innings and, behind Morgan’s sterling performance on the mound, finished the game in five innings.

KAMIAKIN 7, HANFORD 5: Easton Henke pitched six innings, striking out eight to lead the Braves to a win at home over the Falcons on Friday.

Brady Bush had three hits for Kamiakin.

Bradley Poletski led Hanford (5-15) at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double and two runs scored.

4A DISTRICTS

WALLA WALLA 4, RICHLAND 2: Dexter Aichele pitched six strong innings, and the Blue Devils used a three-run sixth inning to pull away and beat the Bombers for their third consecutive 4A MCC district title at Murr Field.

“We are really happy,” Wa-Hi coach Keith Gradwohl said. “We lost eight seniors last year, and six are playing college baseball. Some were thinking we were in a rebuilding year, but we had three or four key returning guys, and Futa Ikuma showed up, and he’s been great. He’s the real deal.”

Ikuma showed his worth in the top of the fifth inning, when a Richland sac bunt two-hopped in front of the plate. Ikuma was able to get the out at second.

“He came from behind the dish and hosed the guys at second,” Gradwohl said of his catcher. “At that point, it was 1-0. It was a huge play.”

After taking a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth, the Blue Devils had to hold off the Bombers in the top of the seventh.

Richland had four of its seven hits in the inning, and it had runners on first and second with one out.

“Richland had the tying run on first, and we brought in Ryan Kimball,” Gradwohl said. “He got a ground-ball force out and struck out (Casey) Perryman to end the game. That’s a tough situation. Give Richland credit, they battled back.”

In the first game, Richland defeated Chiawana 9-4 in a loser-out game. The Bombers led 2-1 in the fourth and 6-1 in the top of the sixth.

Walla Walla (15-7) will host Gonzaga Prep at 4 p.m. Friday in a MCC/GSL subregional game. Richland (13-10) will host GSL No. 3 team Lewis & Clark at 4 p.m. Tuesday in a loser-out game.

RICHLAND 9, CHIAWANA 4: Joel Meinert threw five solid innings, and the Bombers scored seven runs in their final two turns at the plate to hold off a late Riverhawks rally in the 4A district semifinal.

Marcus Sparks drove in a pair of runs for Richland. Troy Simpkins had three of Chiawana’s six hits.

This story was originally published May 7, 2016 at 4:03 PM with the headline "Kennewick, Walla Walla win MCC district baseball crowns."