EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated to correct the year Port Angeles last made it to the state tournament.
BREMERTON — The Sequim Wolves continued their roll all the way to a co-district championship.
Port Angeles, meanwhile, has secured its first state appearance in five years.
Sequim beat River Ridge 6-2 in the District 2/3 baseball tournament semifinals at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds on Saturday.
That victory earned the Wolves a spot in the championship game later Saturday, but the weather intervened and the second game was canceled.
Sequim was awarded the district’s second seed at the Class 2A state tournament, which begins with two regional rounds this Saturday.
The Wolves (14-8) will open state with a loser-out game against East Valley of Spokane (9-15) in Centralia at 10 a.m.
After finishing fourth in Olympic League 2A, Sequim has won five straight games, including all three of its district tournament contests.
“It’s just something I thought we were capable of all along,” coach Dave Ditlefsen said of the hot streak the Wolves are currently riding.
“When we do play well we can look pretty dang tough to beat.
“We’ve shown flashes to this throughout the season.”
Indeed. Sequim’s 14 wins have come in bunches: three in a row, two in a row, four in a row and now the five-win stretch.
In Saturday’s victory, James Grubb didn’t allow River Ridge much opportunity to spoil the Wolves’ streak. Grubb went all seven innings on the mound and struck out eight while giving up only three hits and walking four.
“James Grubb was the story of the game,” Ditlefsen said. “He threw a great game, had a low pitch count, struck out eight.”
The Wolves’ bats only managed five hits, but they weren’t seeing many quality pitches and walked seven times.
Austin Hilliard singled and walked twice, stole three bases and scored three times.
Gavin Velarde had a hit, two walks and scored once, and James Thayer went 2 for 3.
If Sequim beats East Valley on Saturday morning, they’ll face the winner between W.F. West (16-6) and River Ridge (11-12) later in the day for a chance to advance to the state semifinals in Yakima on Saturday, May 27.
Like Sequim, East Valley has been hot in the postseason. The Knights finished last in the Great Northern League but went 2-1 at the league tournament and then defeated East Valley of Yakima in a glue game Saturday.
Sequim 6, River Ridge 2
Sequim 3 1 0 1 0 1 0 — 6 5 1
River Ridge 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 — 2 3 1
WP- Grubb; LP- Carter
Pitching Statistics
Sequim: Grubb 7 IP, 3 H, 2 R, ER, 4 BB, 8 K.
River Ridge: Carter 3 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 7 BB, 5 K; Maratita 4 IP, 3 H, R, 3 K.
Hitting Statistics
Sequim: Velarde 1-1, 2 BB, R, SB; Thayer 2-3, BB; Young 1-4; Hilliard 1-1, 2 BB, 3 R, 3 SB; Porter 0-1, BB, R, RBI; Hurn 0-3, RBI, SB; Harker 0-3, BB, R; Grubb 0-4, RBI.
River Ridge: R. Larson 1-3; Anderson 1-2, RBI; J. Larson 1-3, R.
Roughriders advance to state, too
TACOMA — Port Angeles earned a spot in the Class 2A state baseball tournament by beating Highline 2-1 on Saturday morning.
And then, Saturday afternoon, the Roughriders secured the District 2/3 baseball tournament’s fifth seed by beating Sammamish 8-4.
Port Angeles (19-5) travels across the state to Spokane for regionals, which it opens with a loser-out game against Ephrata (15-9) this Saturday at 10 a.m.
If the Riders wins, they will face the winner between Selah (21-1) and Sammamish (4-21) later Saturday.
Port Angeles only needed to beat Highline on Saturday to secure a state berth, the school’s first since 2011.
After doing so, the Riders moved on to the fifth-place game, in which they fell behind 2-0 and it took them until the fourth inning to get their first hit.
Port Angeles coach Vic Reykdal reminded his team of what was in store.
“We’ve been in the postseason for a couple years, and we haven’t been able to get that sweep, two in a day. I told them we’ve got to learn how to do that,” Reykdal said.
“I was pretty proud of them, they kind of answered. We were down two, and then we put together that big fifth inning.
“It was good for us to learn how to win those two games because that what we got to do [this] weekend.”
The Riders plated five runs in that fifth inning.
It all started with a Janson Pederson walk.
Corey Stone laid down what was intended to be a sacrifice bunt, but the Totems decided to try to get Pederson out at second base. But that plan didn’t work, so the Riders had runners at first and second.
Colton McGuffey tried for a sacrifice bunt as well, but Sammamish again tried to get Pederson at third on a fielder’s choice. The fielder chose incorrectly, and the overthrown ball allowed Pederson to advance home.
Luke Angevine singled to load the bases, and then Curan Bradley’s single drove in Stone, tying the score at 2-2.
Jace Bohman doubled to drive in McGuffey and Angevine, Eathan Boyer singled home Bradley.
The bases were still loaded after a walk and a fielder’s choice. Noah McGoff then drew a walk to score Boyer and give the Riders a 6-2 lead.
“They give us a couple extra outs, and next thing we know, we cranked out [four hits],” Reykdal said.
The Riders manufactured a run apiece in the sixth and seventh innings. Bohman drove in Angevine again in the sixth, and in the final frame, McGuffey’s two-out single scored McGoff.
Pederson earned the win for Port Angeles. He struck out six in six innings and allowed seven hits and four runs.
“Jason, he said to me, ‘You know, I didn’t feel like it was my sharpest game,’ but I thought he did really well,” Reykdal said.
“That’s a really good hitting team.”
Reykdal added that Pederson didn’t allow Sammamish junior catcher Kenneth McCormack, who has committed to play baseball at the University of Washington, to have much of an impact at the plate.
Paytner stymies Pirates
Port Angeles ace Travis Paynter didn’t offer Highline a chance to do much damage in Saturday’s winner-to-state, loser-out game.
Paynter fanned six, walked none and allowed only three hits to earn the complete-game victory.
Highline’s Ryan Moormeier was nearly as stingy, allowing only four hits and two runs in six innings.
The Pirates gave Moormeier a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning.
Port Angeles tied the score in the bottom of the fifth when Ben Basden scored from third on an error.
In the sixth inning, Basden hit a two-out bloop single over the shortstop’s head. Because there were two outs, Boyer got a good jump from second base and was waived around for the game-winner.
“That was a big, clutch hit for Benny,” Reykdal said.
Basden had two of Port Angeles’ four hits. Boyer and Matt Hendry had the others.
Winner-to-state Game
Port Angeles 2, Highline 1
Highline 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 — 1 3 3
Port Angeles 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 — 2 4 0
WP- Paynter; LP- Moormeier
Pitching Statistics
Highline: Moormeier 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K.
Port Angeles: Paynter 7 IP, 3 H, R, 0 BB, 6 K.
Hitting Statistics
Highline: Welcome 1-3, R; Moormeier 1-3; Fosberg 1-2.
Port Angeles: Hendry 1-3, BB; Boyer 1-2, BB, R; Basden 2-3, R, RBI.
Fifth-place Game
Port Angeles 8, Sammamish 4
Port Angeles 0 0 0 0 6 1 1 — 8 9 2
Sammmish 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 — 4 7 2
WP- Pederson; LP- Styer
Pitching Statistics
Port Angeles: Pederson 6 IP, 4 R, 7 H, BB, 6 K; Bradley IP, H, BB, K.
Sammamish: Styer 4 1/3 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 4 ER, BB, 2 K; Kim 2 2/3 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 BB, K.
Hitting Statistics
Port Angeles: Bradley 2-3, R, RBI; Bohman 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI; Angevine 2-4, 2 R; Basden 1-3; Boyer 1-4, R, RBI; McGuffey 1-4, R, 2 RBI.
Sammamish: Shaw 2-4, 2 R; Mitchell 3-4, 2B, 2 R; McCormack 1-4.
1B District 1/2/4
Quilcene is district champion
BREMERTON — The Rangers were awarded the Class 1B District 1/2/4 Tournament championship because their game against Evergreen Lutheran at the Kitsap Country Fairgrounds was rained out and they had the higher seed.
Quilcene (15-4) will open the 1B state tournament against Naselle in Anacortes on Friday. The Rangers beat the Comets 2-1 on Thursday.
The winner of Saturday’s first regional game will face the winner between Evergreen Lutheran (10-6) and Shoreline Christian (11-9) later in the day.
The winner of that game will advance to the state championship game Saturday, May 28, in Centralia.
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Compiled using team reports. Coaches can submit reports and statistics to sports@peninsuladailynews.com.
