黑料福利社

Saturday afternoon's Class 2B state baseball quarterfinal at Parker Faller Field rode the fine line between dramatic and absurd.

Or as Kittitas baseball coach Eric Sorenson summed it up: "Chaos and heartbreak."

The two-step that is the opening rounds of the tournament poses a puzzle for a head coach. You've thrown your ace in your opening-round game, and now, in the same day, you've got to piece together seven innings against a quality foe in a quarterfinal.

That was the challenge the No. 2 Coyotes faced when taking on the No. 10 Ducks for a spot in their first final four since 1995 鈥� hours after dispensing with No. 15 Okanogan 10-1 in the morning behind a gem from Eli Nash for the program's first state win since 2010.

Neither team was able to find much in the way of pitching, but Toutle Lake outlasted Kittitas 20-19 in eight innings to reach its fourth semifinal since 2022. For the Coyotes, it was chaos and heartbreak.

"That was wild, I'm at a loss for words," Sorenson said. "The cool thing about our group of hitters is that they kept fighting, baseball is such a crazy game. It was just one of those days, I don't know how to explain this one."

The teams combined to use nine pitchers who gave up 30 hits, 32 walks and hit nine batters.

The 4 hour, 19 minute game was slowed by myriad of pitching changes, umpire conferences and a brief pause to turn off the sprinklers in the seventh inning. A disinterested attendee with a well-charged iPad could have watched the 107-minute 1989 film "Major League" almost two and a half times between the game's first and last pitch.聽

The marathon of a game, which coincidentally more than doubled that race's world record time, blessedly started 10 minutes early after the Ducks' 12-2 thrashing of Mount Vernon Christian put the tournament site ahead of schedule. But it didn't take long for each side to begin their near-ceaseless circuit of the bases.聽

The first five Ducks reached base, and as fast as they built a 3-0 lead, Kittitas erased it by drawing five first-inning walks.聽聽

Again and again the Coyotes rallied in response to Toutle Lake, wiping away a four-run deficit with a six-run fifth capped by two-run doubles from George Seubert and Brock Hutchinson. Kittitas lost and retook the lead in the sixth, lost the lead again in the seventh only to force extras with a bases-loaded hit by pitch during a stretch of five straight half innings where the team up to hit batted around.聽

"There's just so much character in this team," Sorenson said. "Our mantra this year was 'it's about us.' We'd be down, but we remembered it was about us, and we played for us. Those situations were never too big, cause we believed in the group. These guys believed in the one pitch warrior mentality."

Finally in the eighth, Kittitas was unable to compose one more response, leaving the tying run on second.聽

Nash, who struck out nine and scored twice in the first-round win, tripled, walked three times and scored four times at the top of the order against Toutle Lake. Seubert tripled, doubled and drove in five, while Terry Huber went 2-for-3, was hit by two pitches and scored four times, and Kade Henry doubled, singled twice and drove in a pair.

Kittitas (20-4) graduates three seniors, Huber, JT Boitano and Reid Phillips, and will be favored to return to state for a third straight season next spring.

KITTITAS 10, OKANOGAN 1:聽At Parker Faller Field, Eli Nash struck out nine over five innings and scored twice as the No. 2 Coyotes beat the No. 15 Bulldogs for their first state win since 2010.

Kittitas (20-3) will face the winner of No. 7 Mount Vernon Christian and No. 10 Toutle Lake in a 4 p.m. quarterfinal.

Kittitas 10, Okanogan 1

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Meyer, Ricco (3), Wiman (5) and Kuchenbuch; Nash, Seubert (6) and Huber

Kittitas highlights:聽Eli Nash 5IP, 4H, 1R, 1ER, 3BB, 9K, 2-3, 2 runs, RBI; Owen Hutchinson 1-2, 2 runs, 2 RBI; Terry Huber 1-1, 2B, run, 2 RBI; Jared Johnson 2-4, 2B, run, 2 RBI; Brock Hutchinson 1-2, run, RBI.

Toutle Lake 20, Kittitas 19, 8 inn.

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碍颈迟迟颈迟补蝉=320=065=30=鈥�=19=14=4

Harrison, Johnson (2), Tibles (5), LaCroix (5), Rivera (6) and Webb; Huber, Seubert (2), Newcomb (5), Johnson (6), Huber (7) and Boitano (1-2, 7-8) and Huber (2-7).

Kittitas highlights: Eli Nash 1-3, 3B, 4 runs, 3 BB; Owen Hutchinson 1-5, 2 runs; Terry Huber 2-3, 4 runs; Jared Johnson 1-4, 3 runs; George Seubert 2-4, 2B, 3B, run, 5 RBI; JT Boitano 1-3, 2 runs, RBI; Brock Hutchinson 1-3, 2B, run, 5 RBI; Kade Henry 3-5, 2B, 2 RBI; Dallon Walker 2-5, run, 3 RBI.