3A state baseball: Kennewick falls short of semifinals

Fighting through the wind, rain and whatever else Western Washington could deliver, the Kennewick High School baseball team won its opening round game of the state tournament Sunday at Curtis High School, but couldn’t muster any offense in the quarterfinal, falling to Lake Washington and ending the Lions’ season.

Trent Sellers dealt eight innings to go the distance for the Lions on the mound and drove in the team’s first runs of the day in the bottom of the seventh with a 2-run double to lead Kennewick to a 4-3 victory over Bonney Lake.

The sophomore Sellers came up in the seventh down 3-0 with runners at first and second and nobody out and ripped a ball down the left field line for the clutch extra-base hit.

“I was pumped, I was very, very pumped,” said Sellers, the first team All-MCC pitcher. “(Winning this game) shows how good we can be.”

Two batters later, senior first baseman Andrew Townsend hit a sacrifice fly to center that drove in Sellers for the tying run.

After Sellers stranded a Bonney Lake runner in the top of the eighth, the Kennewick bats picked up right where they left off with senior outfielder Tyler Detloff picking up a leadoff single for his second hit of the day and senior second baseman TJ Rea delivering a two-out, walk-off single a few batters later.

Sellers ended up giving up three runs on eight hits and struck out seven en route to picking up the complete game victory.

“(Sellers) is just a competitor, you don’t see a lot of sophomores like that,” Kennewick first-year head coach Lenny Ayres said. “He goes out there and competes pitch-to-pitch, at-bat to at-bat. I’m glad we have him on our side.”

Quarterfinals

With injuries keeping Kennewick’s No. 2 and 3 starters from taking the field Sunday, Townsend got the call to twirl the Lions’ quarterfinal game against Lake Washington, but couldn’t get out of the first inning.

The three runs the Kangaroos hung on Townsend in his two outs of work turned out to be terminal, as LW’s junior starting pitcher Nick Ludwig stifled the Lions’ bats and went the distance to top Kennewick, 5-0.

“(Ludwig) could locate his three pitches,” said Kennewick senior shortstop Dillon Plew, the MCC Player of the Year. “He kept us off-balance all day, and we just couldn’t string anything together.”

LW’s senior first baseman Kevin Nakahara dealt the first blow out of the cleanup spot in the first, shooting a line drive double into the gap in right-center to score senior shortstop Austin Lively for the game’s first run. Senior rightfielder Paul Falco followed that up with an RBI single of his own, and three batters later Townsend walked in the Kangs’ third run.

Kennewick senior Fabian Green came out of the bullpen inheriting the two-out, bases-loaded jam, and got the first batter he faced to fly out to left to get out of the inning. Green kept the Lions within striking distance, firing 5 1/3 innings of effective relief, giving up just five hits and not allowing a run until the two-run sixth.

“Fabian got minimal innings this year, but I’m so proud of him,” Ayres said. “He’s a senior and he went out and held them down for five innings, and then they got a couple more off of him, but he threw the ball well.”

But the story of the quarterfinal was Lake Washington’s Ludwig, who gave up just two hits and one walk in his complete-game shutout victory.

Lake Washington will play Southridge in the state semifinals at 10 a.m. Friday at Gesa Stadium in Pasco.

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 9:01 PM with the headline "3A state baseball: Kennewick falls short of semifinals."