Naches Valley's Ethan Flory, Brandon Gillespie and Thomas Wilcox show their team's Class 1A state championship trophy to fans after beating Kalama at County Stadium for the 2009 1A championship.   KRIS HOLLAND/ Yakima Herald-Republic

New faces,
but same goal
 
After lots of turnover, Naches Valley returns to final four

By ROGER UNDERWOOD
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

Way back in March, when his team's identity was no more complete than its record, Bill Walker was rudimentary when voicing his expectations of the 2010 Naches Valley Rangers.

Bear in mind that Walker had also coached the 2009 Naches Valley Rangers, who had won the Class 1A state championship behind five extraordinary seniors -- a group that had carried NV to three consecutive final fours.

"This is a new group," Walker said then. "I've told them to not try to live up to the expectations those kids had, but to do the best that they're able to do. And we'll be happy."

Earlier this week, the veteran skipper was asked his frame of mind.

"Couldn't be happier," he said.

This new group, it seems, has done something the Rangers' dearly departed old one had: It has reached yet another final four -- the program's fourth straight.

"We've tried a bunch of different lineups," said Walker, who's in his 14th season with the Rangers, and who guided them to a Class 2A runner-up finish in 1999 and fourth place in 2004. "And we've used a bunch of different kids,
but in the process we've found a combination that seems to be working."

Well enough to have earned NV (22-3) a spot opposite Cashmere (19-3) in Friday's 1 p.m. Class 1A semifinal at Yakima County Stadium. Chimacum (17-3) and Meridian (19-7) will start the proceedings at 10 a.m.

Friday's winners will play for the state title at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Part of the reason this NV group has accomplished something that group did is because not all of it is new.

While Adam Ranger, Ethan Flory, Brandon Gillespie, Thomas Wilcox and Joe Mills formed the heart of last year's batting order and the foundation of the team, others have picked up where the aforementioned group triumphantly left off.

J.R. Weigel and J.D. Ring played well as juniors, and Weigel (.507 batting average) has been named this year's SCAC West MVP.

Chris Walker (.547 and team-high 31 RBI, and 3-1 with a 1.44 ERA on the mound) and Cody Johns (.351, 8-0, 0.95 ERA), sophomores a year ago, have been all-league first-teamer while senior J.D. Ring (.321) and junior Carson Kass (.333, team-high five homers) made the second team. Sophomore Noel Gonzalez and junior Aaron Putas received honorable mention.

And collectively, the Rangers have relished their growing reputation as not just a team to beat, but the team.

"The level of competition in our league since we've been 1A (starting in 2007) has been strong, and teams are consistently been trying to knock us off," Walker said. "We have a bull's-eye on our back. We realize that and we
talk about that. We know we have to come to play every doubleheader and that we can't let down.

"We let down against Cashmere at the end of the season, and that (11-1) loss (at Leavenworth, following a win over Cascade) was probably good for us."

Were there a turning point, however -- a defining moment for the 2010 Rangers -- it likely occurred weeks earlier.

"We played Burbank over spring break," Walker said, "and we lost a real close ballgame (9-8) to them. They celebrated a little too excessively, we thought, and it was something we talked about later.

"We told the guys you can't win a state championship in March or April. So the kids didn't like losing like that, and when they came to practice the next week they were very businesslike."

To the point where the Rangers whole has surpassed the sum of their parts.

"That is so true with this team," Walker said. "J.R. Weigel and J.D. Ring have been our rock solid guys, then we've had contributions from all the way down our roster to the 18th player. And I honestly don't think we've reached our potential."

Which is OK, since they haven't reached the end of their season.

Either Johns or Chris Walker, the coach's son, will start Friday's game.