DeSales stops Colfax, NWC to advance to state

Colfax baseball season came to a ragged end Saturday when the DeSales Irish bumped the Bulldogs 6-3 in their first-round clash at the regional rounds at Spokane's Avista Stadium.

The Irish, who made the trip north as the number-two team from the SE, departed Spokane later in the day with a ticket to state after they stopped Northwest Christian 4-2 in the final regional round.

Northwest Christian started the action at Avista by pegging a 5-3 win over Kittitas, the other entrant at the Spokane segment of the state's baseball round of 16.

DeSales will advance to the state 2B title rounds at Centralia's Wheeler field this weekend. Asotin, the team that bested the Irish last week in the SE final, also advanced with a regional win at Walla Walla.

Colfax Coach Mike Parrish rated the Colfax/Irish clash at Avista as one of the ugliest games ever. The game had a sidetrack theme with a tally of 25 walks called by the plate umpire. Parrish noted Colfax starter Patrick Jacobs and DeSales' Cameron Richman, both control pitchers battling in a state playoff game, normally wouldn't be expected to serve up 25 walks during seven innings. Richman carded 12 walks in the game and Jacobs had 13.

Parrish noted the walk calls caused a lot of frustration on both sides, but it really didn't have much to do with the outcome of the game.

The deciding factor, he said, was three Colfax errors with two of them in the first inning when DeSales staked a 5-0- lead. The five spot turned out to be enough after Colfax struggled to put runners across the plate over the balance the game.

The Bulldogs battled back for three runs over the first two innings, but they couldn't close the gap posted by the Irish in the first half inning of the game.

DeSales scored the first five runs after Colfax committed two errors in the first inning. The first three runs were scored when Irish Coach Kim Cox called for a squeeze bunt with the bases loaded. The bunt by Isaiah Standard went down in front of the plate and a Colfax overthrow to first base put two more Irish runners across the plate. They collected the next two runs on another Colfax overthrow.

Colfax scored in the bottom of the first inning when Irish pitcher Richman ran into the shrunken strike zone and walked a runner around.

The Bulldogs scored two more in the second inning with two more walks and a hit by Mark Webber. Garrett Burke then rapped a ball to the third base side and the Irish defense bobbled it to allow two Bulldog runs.

After that inning Colfax couldn't collect a run. They left three runners on the bases in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth. One more runner was stranded in the sixth.

In the last-chance seventh, Dylan Heiser rapped a hit, the second for the Bulldogs in the game, but he was also stranded.

DeSales also had just two hits in the game, both of them by Darryl Galloway.

Jacobs stuck out six DeSales batters in his last career game for Colfax, and Richman, a junior, fanned 11 Bulldogs.

The loss finished the Colfax season at 16-2. The final loss to the Irish this year came after the defending champions eliminated Colfax 1-0 last year in the second round game of the regionals.

Jacobs and Austin Getz are the lone seniors on the team this year.

One footnote for the series was the head cut sustained by NWC pitcher Nathan Jones before the start of the Kittitas game. The Crusaders started Byron Henry against Kittitas and Jones finished the game.

The NWC season finished at 13-6 after their loss in the final round against the Irish to close out the three-game stand at Avista.