River Ridge pulls repeat in 2A baseball district

PREP BASEBALL: Hawks top Centralia, 10-8, for second straight crown

By Meg Wochnick | The Olympian • Published May 16, 2009

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CHEHALIS – Just call them the district champions.

Again.

Coming into this week’s Class 2A Southwest District IV baseball tournament, few people gave the River Ridge Hawks a chance to accomplish what they did last season – win the district title. Instead, the focus was on the teams seeded ahead of them – Chehalis and Centralia.

River Ridge slid down the Evergreen Conference standings and settled for third place and the No. 3 seed following what coach Chad Arko called a three-week slump during the regular season.

But that didn’t deter his players from achieving what they’ve been capable of all along.

River Ridge capped its magical run in the district tournament by clinching its second consecutive district title with a 10-8 win over the Centralia Tigers on Friday at Bearcats Baseball Stadium at Chehalis High School.

As the No. 1 seed from District IV, River Ridge (15-7) will open regional play close to home at Yelm High School at 1 p.m. May 23. Centralia, the No. 2 seed, will travel to Bellingham.

“Bringing the trophy back home is what we wanted to do,” senior center fielder Stephan Negron said. “People looked down on us because of our season. We looked more at ourselves because it was the postseason.”

Thursday night, River Ridge clinched a regional berth with its epic 7-6, nine-inning win over previously unbeaten Chehalis. The Hawks were down 6-5 going into the bottom of the ninth when Emil Swartling hit a two-run double, driving in Jon Matos to score the winning run. Chehalis had given up 10 runs all season before giving up seven to River Ridge.

Because of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday, Centralia (16-6) had to play its opening-round and semifinal games Thursday. By the time the Tigers left the field after their 5-1 win over Hockinson and 9-7, extra-inning win over Mark Morris, it was nearly 11 p.m.

Because the Tigers played two games Thursday, Centralia coach Jon Rooklidge had no choice but to use two junior varsity pitchers - freshmen Mason Musselman and Cole Housden - in Friday’s title game. The Tigers also were without pitcher and No. 3 hitter Andrew Pullin, a freshman who sustained a concussion Thursday.

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