Class 3A baseball: Issaquah state champions again

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most e-mailed articles

Related stories Class 4A baseball: Lake Washington hitting nets third place Class 4A baseball: Kentwood loses title game to Southridge Other links Sunday's state-championship baseball scores & stats

YAKIMA — In the city that likes to call itself the "Palm Springs of Washington," the Issaquah baseball team shined and can call itself Class 3A state baseball champions.

Bullpen graduate Mikey Griffith made the most of his first start of the season last night by pitching a two-hitter to lead Issaquah to the title with an 8-2 victory over Columbia River of Vancouver.

The boys from the 'burbs played errorless, smart baseball and rode the strong arm of a pitcher who didn't follow final-inning instructions in derailing the Chieftains.

"They told me to get three ground-ball outs the last inning," the junior transfer from Seattle Prep said.

Instead, Griffith struck out the side and finished with eight strikeouts.

Coach Rob Reese said he "played a hunch" by starting Griffith and it paid off with the school's second state title in five years. Issaquah won in 2000. That triumph started a run of KingCo Conference teams winning four of the last five state 3A titles.

Issaquah had special motivation this year after reaching the semifinals last year only to lose a 1-0 heartbreaker to West Valley of Yakima in the semifinals and finish third.

"We thought last year was our year," Reese said.

Turned out this year was.

Columbia River used its ace, Kyle Beitey, in a 2-0 no-hit victory over Selah earlier in the day. The Chieftains went with undefeated sophomore Jesse Boehm, a 2000 Little League World Series veteran, but he allowed eight runs and seven of Issaquah's nine hits.

But errors were what burned Columbia River coach Travis Ramberg. "Four errors," he said, looking at the scoreboard. "You aren't going to win a state title game with four errors."

Issaquah took a 4-0 lead in the second inning by taking advantage of two Columbia River errors on bunts by Tommy Brown and Luke Olsen and RBI singles from Cameron Gellatly and Anthony Sanelli.

The Vancouver team cut it to 4-1 in the top of the third when Cole Janini walked, advanced to third on two passed balls, and scored on an infield out.

Issaquah scored three runs with two outs in the third inning, with two runs scoring on Gellatly's single and Erik Woldseth scoring from third on a double steal to make it 7-1.

Sanelli made it 8-1 in the bottom of the fourth, when he singled, went to second when the ball got past the right fielder, then went home on Scott Suttmeier's single.

River, which finishes 21-5, got its second run in the sixth when Justin Andrews was hit by a pitch and later scored on a Chris Bolton single.

Last night's crowd at Parker Field at Yakima Valley Community College was about 400. Nearly 2,000 fans, most of them from nearby Selah, watched their team in the afternoon semifinal.

The decision to move the 3A and 4A Final Fours to Yakima from Everett was made Friday after rainouts and a gloomy forecast.

There was nothing gloomy about the Eagles (22-4) last night as they pig-piled on Griffith and celebrated.

"Since we have been yea tall this has been our goal, and we did it and did it as a team," said winning catcher Tommy Brown.

Other games

Issaquah 6, Burlington-Edison 0 (semifinal) — Gonzaga-bound Matt Wickswat threw a two-hitter and struck out seven in lifting the KingCo champion Eagles into the title game. The loss ended a 15-game winning streak for second-ranked Burlington-Edison.

Wickswat was the losing pitcher in a 1-0 semifinal loss to West Valley of Yakima last year.

"I really wanted to win this game after losing 1-0 last year," he said.

The senior left-hander walked only two batters. He finished his high-school senior season with a 10-0 record.

Issaquah led only 1-0 entering the seventh inning then scored five runs on four hits and two errors.

The Eagles took a 2-0 lead on a squeeze play on which Luke Olsen laid down a perfect bunt, and was safe on a throwing error. Woldseth and Gellatly followed with run-scoring singles.

Columbia River 2, Selah 0 (semifinal) — Senior left-hander Kyle Beitey threw a no-hitter with 12 strikeouts in handing the state's top-ranked team its first defeat of the year. Selah had won its first 25 games.

"Oh, yeah," said Beitey when asked if he started to think about the no-hitter while on the mound. "In the sixth and seventh innings the most."

It was the third career no-hitter for Beitey (10-0), who threw a five-inning no-hitter two weeks ago against Timberline at district. He hasn't given up more than three hits in a game this season.

Selah 13, Burlington-Edison 4 (3rd-4th places) — The top-ranked Vikings took out the frustration of losing the semifinal game by hammering the Tigers to take third and finish with 26-1. Burlington-Edison got the fourth-place trophy and finished 23-4.

Selah's Joe Cort and Chase Powell hit back-to-back homers in the second inning to give the Vikings a 3-2 lead in a seven-run inning. Selah pounded out 13 hits.