Colfax advances after 2 wild ones

Colfax baseball team advanced to the state regional round late Tuesday night after two wild playoff rounds at Medical Lake. Colfax will travel to Walla Walla High Saturday and play Riverside Christian in the first game at 10 a.m.

The other two teams at Walla Walla will be Kittitas and DeSales. One team will advance to the final four in the state title round next weekend at Ellensburg.

Colfax advanced late Tuesday night with a 21-4 cruncher over Lind/Ritzville/Sprague for the number-two NE slot in the round of 16. The Colfax win came after Northwest Christian blanked Colfax 14-0 Monday in a shutout pitched by Crusader senior David Yoppini. He served up the shutout in steady rain and wind.

Yoppini struck out 14 of the 15 batters he faced over the five-inning game. The only Colfax bat contact came in the fifth inning when Jeff Davies rapped a fly which was dropped by the NWC outfielder. That put Davies on first base to end the Crusader senior pitcher’s claim on a perfect game.

The Crusaders have stacked a 12-game win streak since they lost to Colfax in both sides of the league twinbill at McDonald Park. The loss put them in second place in league standings, but Yoppini’s revenge in the rain Monday put them in the top slot for the regionals.

The second NE round was canceled because of the weather, and Colfax traveled back to Medical Lake Tuesday for a night game with LRS.

The 21-4 Bulldog crunch evolved after the Broncos ran out of pitching early in the night. They used four pitchers against the Bulldogs over four innings.

Patrick Jacobs pitched the first four inning for the Bulldogs.

After Colfax rolled up 21 runs in four innings, Coach Mike Parrish put freshman Keith Gfeller on the mound in the fifth inning before the game was shut down on the 10-run rule. The Broncos finished with seven hits.

The Broncos finished in the NE number -three slot which sent them to the four-team regionals round at Shadle Park.

Colfax batters rapped 12 hits against the four LRS pitchers. Jacobs had three hits with a double, and Brady Ellis and John Mellor each had two hits with a double