Grizzlies can’t keep up with Jones, Brewster in final

YAKIMA – There would be no magic, no amazing rallies, no improbable endings for Newport’s baseball team at the State 1A championship.

All they had was the realization that for the first time all season, they weren’t the best team on the field when the game ended.

That distinction belonged to Brewster, which won the 1A title at County Stadium with a 5-0 win behind a three-hit shutout by Rob Jones.

Jones allowed one runner to reach third base, and never two runners in the same inning.

“That pitcher was probably the fastest we had seen all year,” said Newport senior shortstop Myles Melendez, who had two of the Grizzlies’ three hits. “We were too anxious to hit the ball, trying to hit it the opposite way. He was nothing special.”

Jones (8-0) struck out 10 and walked only one batter for the second straight Brewster shutout.

“We just ran out of gas,” Newport head coach Rusty Hargrove said. “We haven’t hit the ball lately, and now we still haven’t hit it. We’ve got to swing it better than that. You can’t leave runs on base in this big a game.”

Brewster (24-0-2) capped an undefeated season by starting off hot against Newport ace left-hander Nick Collision.

Senior shortstop Hawkins Gebbers, the second batter of the game, drilled a first-pitch fastball from Collison well over the wall in left field for the first run of the game.

Brewster picked up another run on a double steal, with J.R. Jarrell drawing a throw to first, while poor execution by the Grizzlies allowed Michael Taylor to score from third.

“We’ve been up all year and then they got us down two runs,” Melendez said. “We weren’t really ready to go. It kind of just kept going down, the ship kind of sank.”

Collison allowed hits in the second, third and fourth, but was able to keep the Bears from adding to their lead until the fifth.

With a runner on first and two outs, Newport center fielder Bryce Green dropped a fly ball, allowing Gebbers to score from first.

In the sixth, Brewster put the game out of reach, scoring two runs on no hits. The runs came in on a throwing error by Collison and a sacrifice fly by Gebbers, who finished with three hits and two RBIs.

Collison came out after the sixth, allowing eight hits and five runs, three earned, while striking out seven.