Knights knock off Eagles
It was a pitcher’s duel worthy of postseason play – two aces going on two days’ rest, the winner to state, the loser going home.
Bret Riggin was not going home.
The East Valley senior threw a two-hitter and struck out 15, pitching the Knights to a 2-1 win over West Valley and the Eastern Regional’s second berth into the State 3A tournament.
EV (15-9) will play Centralia at 10 a.m. Saturday at Yakima County Stadium, with the winner playing at 4 p.m. for a bid to the final four.
Greg Bradley, WV’s junior left-hander, equaled Riggin through six, matching him zero for zero after both allowed a first-inning run.
In the top of the seventh, Reggie Ruiz, EV’s ninth-place hitter, lined a 3-1 fastball into left-center field for a one-out double. After Ruiz moved to third on a wild pitch, Hamilton fouled off two nasty 2-2 curveballs from Bradley.
Bradley’s next pitch was a curveball that caught too much of the plate, and Hamilton hit a flare into center, scoring Ruiz for the go-ahead run.
“George’s at-bat was so clutch,” EV head coach John Phelan said. “He came down when Reggie doubled and I said, ‘George, you’re a senior, we need a clutch at-bat out of you.’ He’s been around the game a long time, he knows exactly what to do.”
For Riggin, the game had a little more meaning.
He grew up a West Valley Eagle, with his dad, Ray, coaching the baseball team there for seven years. After eliminating the Eagles and booking his team a trip into the state tournament, he had to wipe away tears.
“This is where I grew up playing baseball,” said Riggin, who also had an RBI single in the first for the Knights’ first run. “To come in there and beat them on their field was something I wanted bad. I would do anything for it.”
Anything, like coming back after complete-game wins in loser-out games Tuesday and Saturday, and then to blow away those performances with utter domination of the Eagles bats.
“That’s the first game I’ve ever seen him really pitch,” WV head coach Don O’Neal said. “Usually he just throws. He was, I’m guessing, 60 to 70 percent. We thought he would try to throw it by us, and we knew he couldn’t. He pitched today, so I’m proud of him.”
After striking out WV’s Bryan Peterson to end the third inning, Riggin retired the next six Eagles on strikeouts, throwing only one ball in the process. Riggin put together a nine-pitch fourth inning, striking out Greg Bradley, Mitch Phillips and Darrin VanBebber on three pitches apiece.
In the bottom of the seventh, hanging on to a one-run lead, Riggin threw an 0-2 fastball by Casey Sherrill for the first out. Mike Helmberger followed with a base hit, and Bryan Peterson walked. Leadoff hitter Matt Peterson sacrificed Helmberger to third, bringing up Phillip Gannon, owner of one of the two hits off Riggin.
Riggin threw his curveball on the inside half for strike one, sliced the outside corner with another for strike two, and notched strikeout number 15 with another curveball, sweeping across the plate and past a swinging Gannon.
With 21 innings in eight days, Riggin is approaching bionic man status.
“I only throw him once a week, and he’s always complaining that he wants to throw more,” Phelan said. “Now, since the playoffs started, he’s been our guy. He’s won three of our four games, and he’s thrown three complete games. He’s having a phenomenal postseason.”
Phelan said Riggin had a limit of 100 pitches (he finished with 94), so he could have gone another inning had the two teams gone into extras.
“With the way their kid pitched, we could have went 20 innings,” Phelan said of Bradley, who struck out nine and walked two while allowing eight hits. Bradley was chased early from West Valley’s 12-4 loss to West Valley-Yakima on Saturday.
EV jumped ahead in the top of the first when Grant Bruscoe walked, stole second and scored on Riggin’s first-pitch single up the middle.
WV answered in the bottom of the frame when Gannon scored a run on a wild pitch by Riggin.
The Eagles’ entire starting lineup will return next year.