Outlaws ready to take on nation’s best

When the Kennewick Outlaws started playing games this season, their players and coaches thought they could be set for a special summer. Few thought they would be one of the best teams in the country.

But after beating the Medford (Ore.) Mustangs 10-1 Sunday in Cheyenne, Wyo., to claim the Region 7 title, the Outlaws will represent the Northwest in the American Legion World Series, which begins Thursday in Shelby, N.C.

“I knew we had a good chance to make a run here at regionals, as long as we kept playing the way we did at the state tournament,” second-year Outlaws coach Nate Holdren said. “At the beginning of the year, no, I didn’t think we’d be in the world series, but I thought we’d be in Wyoming.”

The American Legion World Series figures to provide the biggest stage any of the Outlaws have played on, with fan attendance at Shelby’s Keeter Stadium often exceeding 9,000 — more than 115,000 combined fans attended last year’s 15 tournament games.

Kennewick shortstop Dillon Plew will likely get plenty of experience in front of big crowds when he starts playing for Washington State University next spring, but he said he expects the atmosphere in Shelby to be unlike anything he’s experienced to this point.

“At first it’s gonna be pretty weird playing in front of that many people, because probably the most I’ve played in front of is like 400,” Plew said. “But I think it’s going to be a fun experience.”

Plew, the 2016 Mid-Columbia Conference Player of the Year, came up big for the Outlaws in the regional championship game, driving in two runs on three hits.

While Plew provided consistency at the plate for the Outlaws, Andrew Vargas broke the game open with one swing of the bat, launching a three-run homer in the fifth to make the score 4-0 and give the Outlaws some breathing room in the winner-take-all final.

“We weren’t very comfortable with that one-run lead because they were a good hitting team,” said Vargas, a soon-to-be senior at Chiawana High School. “So I just got my pitch and hit a three-run home run, and that helped get us going.”

But Vargas gave a good deal of credit to pitcher Gerald Hein for winning the regional championship, seeing as he tossed his first complete 9 inning game to carry the Outlaws to the finish.

“I had enough velocity still, command still, to go back in for the ninth,” said Hein, who will play ball for Yakima Valley Community College next spring.

Hein said he felt fatigued, but not sore, after throwing 129 pitches.

After his team handled Medford — who lost by a run in the semifinals of the 2015 American Legion World Series — Coach Holdren said the Outlaws seem poised to make a run at a national championship, regardless of what team they face.

“We always preach, me and all my coaches, that it really doesn’t matter, especially in the game of baseball, who you’re playing, it’s what you do,” Holdren said. “It really doesn’t matter who’s in the other dugout; how big, how strong, how fast they are, how hard they throw the ball, it’s still the game of baseball. It’s going to depend on how we throw the ball, how we catch the ball and how we hit the ball.”

The Outlaws will face Nebraska Post 1, representing the Central Plains region, in their first game of group play on Thursday. Holdren said Trent Sellers, another of the Outlaws’ star pitchers, will be on the hill for the first game.

All American Legion World Series games played from August 14-16, when the tournament ends, will be broadcast on ESPNU.

This story was originally published August 8, 2016 at 9:19 PM with the headline "Outlaws ready to take on nation’s best."