Ki-Be Rules As State Champ After Two Previous Failures O

A baseball

Kiona-Benton entered Saturday night’s State A Championship game against Lakewood the way “All My Children” soap opera star Susan Lucci enters an Emmy Awards presentation.

Most people have lost track of the number of times Lucci has been denied an Emmy after having been nominated, but Ki-Be knew this was its third straight trip to the state championship game and the Bears hadn’t claimed a crown in the previous two.

That trend changed last night. Ki-Be beat Lakewood, 7-0, at Seafirst Stadium.

Ki-Be hadn’t won a state crown since 1975, when the roster included an outfielder named Dewayne Smith. Saturday night, Smith’s son Steve pitched a three-hitter to help his team to the shutout win.

“This means just as much to the community as it does to this team,” Dewayne Smith said. “This is a great feeling.”

That may be an understatement. There were few dry eyes in Ki-Be’s cheering section after the game. About 250 fans represented the towns of Kiona and Benton City. The school is located in Benton City, which is 10 miles west of Richland.

Steve Smith, a senior making his third trip to the title game, clearly wanted to take home more than the second-place trophy.

“I was so nervous,” he said. “That whole game I kept telling myself to relax, throw strikes, relax, throw strikes, relax, throw strikes… “

And that he did. Lakewood never put together an offensive threat.

At the plate for Ki-Be, Jason Hall did the biggest damage, driving in three runs while playing with a stress fracture in his left leg. Hall plated one in a three-run third inning for the Bears and two more in the two-run fourth.

Ki-Be coach Mike Hagen collected his third state title in 29 years.

, DataTimes