Centralia ends EV’s tourney run
YAKIMA – East Valley was dying to make an impression in its first State 3A baseball tournament appearance since 1999.
Unfortunately, the Knights ran into a pitcher in his comfort zone. Centralia’s Jeremy Johnson held the Knights to one hit – a one out double in the seventh inning by Jake Labelle – striking out 13 as the Tigers eliminated EV, 3-0 at Yakima County Stadium on Saturday morning.
The loss – the fifth straight in state tournament play for the Knights – ended a stellar late-season run that saw EV go 11-4 in its final 15 games and get to state for the first time in John Phelan’s five-year tenure. East Valley finished with a 15-10 record.
Centralia advanced to the quarterfinals, losing to O’Dea, 9-4 Saturday.
Johnson was masterful in going the distance for his second spectacular win in Yakima in a year. In July 2004, Johnson shut down the powerful Kennewick Bandits in the first round of the American Legion State Tournament, striking out 11 and allowing just three hits. That loss was the last suffered by Kennewick until the Legion World Series title game.
Johnson got himself into a dab of difficulty here and there with some wildness – he walked five, but always seemed to find a way to wiggle off the hook.
“When we did get to him,” Phelan said, “He could really bear down and focus. There were two innings in particular where he did that.”
One of those was the seventh. After surrendering a walk to George Hamilton and Labelle’s slicing double to right field, Johnson struck out Brady Brunelle and Reggie Ruiz with nasty sliders to end the game.
“That’s a good chucker over there,” Phelan said. “He has good enough control with the slider that we had to take some hacks with two strikes.”
Centralia got Johnson all the runs he would need in the first inning. Tigers’ catcher and leadoff hitter Geoff Gabler took advantage of a dropped foul pop, homering over the left-field wall two pitches later. Kyle Johnson followed with a single, stole second, advanced to third on a catcher’s error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Landon Cruickshank.
The damage – both in the inning and overall – could have been worse. The Tigers had men thrown out attempting to steal second base in each of the first three innings.
After appearing rattled early, Knights pitcher Bret Riggin settled down and went the distance, scattering four hits over the final six innings. But other than Grant Bruscoe’s first inning walk and stolen base, the Knights’ couldn’t get a man to second base until the seventh inning. Phelan was philosophical and realistic after the loss ended his team’s run of four straight wins in elimination games.
“We didn’t play poorly today,” he said. “We ran into a pitcher we couldn’t handle well.”