Something's gotta give in Class 1A
 
Hot-hitting Naches Valley faces pitching-rich Kalama

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Call today's opening game of the Class 1A state baseball championships the unstoppable force against the immovable object.

The former is Naches Valley, which has been the essence of offensive power in building its 22-2-1 record. The Rangers' opponent in the 10 a.m. showdown, Kalama (19-3), boasts a trio of hurlers that can be all but untouchable.

The Rangers, whose 20-minute drive to Yakima County Stadium makes them the tournament's closest thing to a home team, hit .415 as a squad. They have four players with five home runs, can put back-to-back-to-back .500-plus hitters in the lineup, have a 25-stolen-base speedburner and have had 14 of their games stopped by the 10-run mercy rule. In their current 16-game winning streak, Naches Valley has outscored opponents by an otherworldly 200-26 margin.

Kalama could have the Rangers' nemesis, though, with a pitching crew that has allowed opponents more than four runs only twice all season. Left-handed sophomore Nick LaRoy has been his league's best pitcher for two years, pitched last summer in the Babe Ruth 15-year-old World Series in Alabama and had one six-inning no-hitter this season in which he struck out 15.

And even if hitters manage to get to LaRoy, the Chinooks' closer -- league MVP Chris Pierce, who regularly plays shortstop -- has a 0.00 earned-run average.

"We really haven't faced anybody who's been lights-out all year," said Naches Valley coach Bill Walker, whose team lost 4-2 in last year's championship game. "It'll be a good challenge for our kids."

The 1 p.m. semifinal pits a team with lengthy state-tourney pedigree, 20-5 Rochester, against a Freeman squad with a glittery record (21-1) but minimal tournament tradition.

Rochester has reached the semifinals six times in its 16 state trips, including a pair of titles in the 1990s, and the Warriors have beaten both Naches Valley and Kalama this season -- though they did lost three of four to the Chinooks.

Freeman is in its first final four but has been impressive so far, outscoring its two state-tourney opponents 29-10, including an 18-7 drubbing of Friday Harbor, which spent much of this year atop the state rankings.

CLASS 2B

At first glance, it seems almost unfair: Northwest Christian (Lacey) reaches its first state tournament, ekes out a close first-round victory, then jumps all over its quarterfinal foe to reach its first semifinal ... only to come face-to-face with the team that has been the face of Class B baseball for two decades.

The DeSales Irish.

Gulp.

The Irish (20-4) have won 15 of the last 19 state titles, and they have looked like the typical DeSales juggernaut in their first two tournament games, outscoring foes 47-7.

The DeSales-Northwest Christian game will be the late semifinal at Parker Field, beginning at 7 p.m. It will follow a 4 p.m. game between Adna -- which split two games with Northwest Christian this year -- and Asotin.

Adna returns the entire lineup from its third-place team of a year ago.

CLASS 1B

If there's a team to beat in the 1B tournament at Parker Field, it might well be the Northport Mustangs.

The Mustangs (23-2) return the bulk of the team that reached the tournament last year's fourth-place finishers, including senior right-hander Tucker Guglielmino (13-1). All-leaguers Guglielmino, Dillon Dombrowski and Casey Cox are big-time hitters in a lineup that has scored upwards of 20 runs four times this season.

Northport will play the 1 p.m. semifinal against Lake Quinault (14-4), following the 10 a.m. opener pitting Touchet (15-7) against the Colton Wildcats (13-8). Colton enjoyed one of the year's strangest blowout victories last Saturday during regional play at Parker Field, when it scored 31 runs against Wishkah on -- get this -- five hits.

Three of those hits came during their 10-run first inning, which included a three-run homer by Jake Druffel. But the bulk of Colton's scoring was the result of 31 walks and nine batters hit by pitches.