Mound Duel Goes To Irish Desales Wins Battle Against Crusaders’ Ace

It takes a team player to stand up to the heat of Jeremy Affeldt’s 90-mile-per-hour fastball.

The ice bag strapped to Matt Heinzman’s right leg was testimony to his status as a team player.

A gem of a State B semifinal at Seafirst Stadium on Friday came down to Heinzman being hit by a ninth-inning heater with the bases loaded that forced in the first and decisive run in the WIAA State B Boys Baseball Championships.

The DeSales Irish went on to break up a pitchers’ duel, defeating the Northwest Christian Crusaders 5-0 and advancing to today’s 1 p.m. championship game at Seafirst against Touchet, a 3-2 winner over Cascade Christian.

Northwest Christian and Cascade Christian will meet in the consolation final, which has been switched to West Valley High School, at 10 a.m.

The finalists will have to go some to equal the tension of Affeldt’s duel with DeSales junior left-hander Joe Levens.

Levens struck out 14 and scattered five hits over nine innings to put the Irish in the championship game for the sixth straight year.

The line on NWC’s Affeldt, who hopes to figure prominently in next week’s major league draft: 8-2/3 innings, nine hits, 14 strikeouts, six walks and four hit batters.

“There were two great guys out there throwin’ it,” DeSales coach Kim Cox said. “It was just a matter of someone scoring a run.”

NWC came close in the bottom of the seventh when Dustin Greenup singled and Levens began to lose control. He walked Jake Wolf and Matt Heeter, but with two gone and the sacks full he sent the game into extra innings by inducing Affeldt to pop to third.

“With two outs I just tried to put something extra on the ball and get it by him,” said Levens, an All-State B-11 football wide receiver. “We knew it was going to be a low-scoring game. I just tried to stay pitch for pitch with him.”

The Irish affinity to create their own luck - they’ve won seven of the last nine State B titles - surfaced in the ninth with the game scoreless.

Sophomore pinch-hitter Tyler Baffney singled up the middle to lead it off. He eventually came around with the winning run, moving up on Mike Carroll and Kris Wolfram singles and scoring when Affeldt’s full-count fastball grazed Heinzman’s leg.

Heinzman took a pitch squarely in the thigh in the first inning that he said hurt a lot more.

“Getting out of the way is not how we do things around here,” said Heinzman, the DeSales catcher. “I had a little more adrenaline on the second one so I didn’t notice it that much.”

Levens said Affeldt was as good as advertised.

“We cranked those (pitching) machines up all week, trying to get ready for him,” he said. “We heard he threw 88 consistently so we put them up there. I’d say he was throwing as fast as the machines - in the high 80s.”

Reminded that he, too, had run up a lot of strikeouts, Levens grinned.

“Lot of innings,” he said.

Northwest Christian coach Jack Hancock said it took a great game to knock his team out of contention.

“The loss hurts, but the effort was there,” Hancock said. “Jeremy throws hard and changes speeds, but what he proved again today is his endurance. There were times when we felt like he’s thrown better, but there were times when we shook our heads and said, ‘What a workhorse.”’

Touchet managed just one hit off Cascade Christian pitchers Nathan Casey and Jeremy Moore, but capitalized on two walks and three hit batters to overcome the Cougars.

The hit batters all came in a row to highlight the Indians’ decisive three-run sixth. Touchet then had to weather a Cascade Christian uprising in the top of the seventh that produced a run before gaining the finals.

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