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Yakima Herald-Republic
Yakima Herald-Republic
PUBLISHED ON Sunday, May 11, 2008 AT 12:00AM

Prep baseball -- Selah outlasts East Valley in classic CWAC district championship
by Jerrel Swenning
Yakima Herald-Republic

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SELAH -- The scary thing is, they could do it all over again in six days.

In a proverbial nobody-deserved-to-lose game, second-ranked Selah captured its second straight CWAC district baseball championship with a
9-8 white-knuckle victory against East Valley on Saturday night at Carlon Park.

Both teams had already secured berths in the Class 2A state tournament and will be on opposite sides of a four-team regional bracket next Saturday at Davis High School. The Red Devils (17-6) will play West Valley of Spokane (17-4) at 10 a.m.; the Vikings (20-3) will follow against Clarkston (15-7) at 1 p.m.

And should the Viks and EV win, it's a 4 o'clock contest with a final-four berth at stake.

"It's something we look forward to," East Valley coach Jesse Benedetti. "We've had some good games against them and wouldn't mind another one."

Any rematch, though, would have a hard time matching the excitement of Saturday's contest.

With more than a dozen bases on balls and a couple errors, the game wasn't a masterpiece aesthetically. But it seemed destined to be won on the final at-bat and was.

"That was just a great game by both teams," said Selah coach Mike Archer, who's molded a team that had just one senior in its starting lineup into another state title contender.

"We push them so hard in practice," he said. "It steamrolls; kids by into it and the last two weeks have been the epitome of that."

The first three innings were innocent enough -- the Viks grabbed a 3-0 lead behind the pitching of junior Justin Windsor and station-to-station offense.

Archer also dabbled in chicanery with a pickoff move that ended an East Valley threat in the second inning. With two runners on and University of Washington recruit Kevin Komstadius at the plate, Windsor faked an errant throw to second base and, on cue, second baseman Alex Fickes and center fielder Kyle Fickes went scrambling for the ball.

Only it was still in Windsor's glove. The Vikings then tagged EV's Jordan Cameron in a rundown.

The Red Devils, would knot the score in the top of the fourth by stringing together three hits. EV took a 6-3 lead with a three-run, two-out rally in the fourth which Komstadius began with a double.

Selah chipped away with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth and took a 7-6 lead with two more in the sixth.

Refusing to go quietly, East Valley nabbed an 8-7 lead with two runs in its final at-bat. Kory Sauve smacked a double to the left-field wall to score Bobby Pottenger, who drew a leadoff walk.

Sauve then went to third on Nick Woods' infield single and eventually scored when the Vikings were unable to turn a double play on a grounder by a hustling Cameron, who just beat the throw to first base.

Over, right? Nope.

Stephan Schmidt smith singled to left and was replaced on the base paths by senior Justin Goodall. Cody Collier's grounder was then mishandled giving Selah runners on first and second.

Tyler Porter then hit a flair to left to score Goodall and again give Selah runners on first and second. Trevor Dallman then put the ball in play but Elkins' throw to third sailed over the head of EV third baseman Ryan Schoonover to score Collier.

"I feel so happy," said Collier, a senior. "This week I was thinking this could be my last weekend of playing baseball."

East Valley 000 330 2 -- 8 10 2

Selah 102 022 2 -- 9 10 0

Komstadius, Hansen (6), Elkins (7) and Woods; Windsor, Potvin (6) and Snider.

Highlights: Tyler Smith (EV) 2b; Kevin Komstadius (EV) 2b, 2 runs; Kevin Elkins (EV) 2 runs; Bobby Pottenger (EV) 2 hits, 2 RBI, 3 runs; Kory Sauve (EV) 2b, RBI; Nick Woods (EV) 3 hits, 2b, run, RBI; Alex Fickes (S) hit, 2 runs; Jake Fife (S) 2 hits, 2 RBI; Stephan Schmidt (S) 3 hits; Cody Collier (S) RBI, game-winning run; Tyler Porter (S) RBI; Matt Snider (S) RBI.


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