Prep Baseball Playoffs / Wesco AAA District -- Snohomish Qualifies For Regionals -- Panthers Beat E-W, Win Shot At Wesco Title

EVERETT - With a spot in the state regional baseball tournament assured, Snohomish High School senior Jason Castro wants to complete a four-year quest.

Sixth-ranked Snohomish qualified for the regionals by knocking off No. 3 Edmonds-Woodway 8-2 in the Western AAA Conference District tournament yesterday at Everett Memorial Stadium.

The quest for Castro and the Panthers?

The WesCo championship.

Snohomish (16-5) will play the winner of tonight's Edmonds-Woodway-Cascade game in a best-of-three series tomorrow and Saturday. The winner of that series will play in the Region I tournament in Everett; the other team plays in the Region II tournament in Kent.

More important, the winner of that series brings home the WesCo trophy.

"From the very beginning of the year, we've had the goal to win the WesCo championship," said Castro, who went 3 for 4 yesterday. "Last year, we felt we had it but we gave it away. We're not going to do that again."

The Panthers earned their first regional berth since 1987.

Not bad for a team that was in third place in the WesCo North Division just two weeks ago.

Snohomish and Sehome tied for first place in the North, but the Panthers earned the No. 1 seed at district by winning two of three games from the Mariners this season.

"This is great," Castro said. "We're on top of the world right now. We've worked hard for four years to earn this."

Senior Adam Eaton pitched a four-hitter, striking out five. Eaton, a Washington State recruit, also hit a two-run homer to left field in the third inning.

"They're a good team," Castro said of Edmonds-Woodway. "Adam just shut them down. A lot of the credit should go to Adam."

And to Castro and second baseman Chad Gestson.

Castro, the all-WesCo first baseman as a junior, hit a solo homer in the fourth inning for a 3-0 lead.

"That was the farthest he's hit a ball in his life," Snohomish Coach Kim Hammons said within earshot of Castro. "And it couldn't have come at a better time."

Gestson, another of Snohomish's 11 seniors, had six assists and reached base four times.

"The thing I'm proudest of is I've been here four years, and we've gotten better each year," Hammons said. "That's a tribute to the great leadership on this team."

Snohomish put away the game with four unearned runs in the top of the seventh inning.

Edmonds-Woodway (19-2), the WesCo South Division champion, plays Cascade in a winner-to-regional, loser-out game today at 5:30 p.m.

E-W shortstop David Brumbaugh made the defensive play of the game in the third inning. Brumbaugh, moving to his left, snagged Wes Scott's hot grounder, spun and threw out Scott at first base.

"I didn't think we played that poorly," E-W Coach Joe Webster said. "He (Easton) pitched a heck of a game. There's that saying in baseball that good pitching will beat good hitting. I think that's what happened today."

Edmonds-Woodway played without pitching ace Brian Dean, who is out for about two weeks with a sprained ligament in his elbow.

Cascade eliminates Sehome

Cascade 8, Sehome 4 - Brett Lampson's two-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Bruins (16-5) the lead for good. The Bruins get another shot at Edmonds-Woodway, which swept Cascade in three games this season, in a loser-out, winner-to-regionals game tonight.

"We'll try to take them. We've got to get fired up," Lampson said. "We've got to come out ready to play because we know they'll be ready to play, too."

Lampson's homer to right-center gave Cascade a 5-4 lead.

"I told the guys on the team that I felt pretty good today," Lampson said. "I just saw the ball real well."

Benji Langan stroked a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the sixth to break the game open for Cascade. Bryan Ingram hit a pair of run-scoring doubles, both after Shawn Stevenson doubled for the Bruins.

Vas Podorean hit a two-run homer in the fifth for Sehome, which ends the year 16-6.