Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
CHS baseball
Senior Mark Webber leads the congratulations line as the Bulldogs take the lead in the state seminal against Toledo in Centralia. The Bulldogs won 4-2 to advance to the final.
The Colfax High School baseball team took second in state after a 4-2 loss to Adna last Saturday in the 2B final in Centralia.
“Still second place,” said 19th year coach Mike Parrish.
“Once you get there you always think you can win it.” Parrish, who has led the Bulldogs to four state finals, winning two championships, coached a team this year to a 22-2 record, led by a senior class who vied for state appearances in football and basketball but never got there.
In the spring, for baseball, they got there – beating Toledo 4-2 last Friday in the semis at Wheeler Field to make the state final.
On Saturday afternoon off of Interstate 5, the championship game was scoreless until the third inning when Colfax’s Brody Yarnell hit a ground ball between Adna’s third baseman and shortstop for a single.
A sacrifice bunt from Keith Gfeller followed, sending Yarnell to second.
He took third on a passed ball before Bulldogs’ freshman catcher Cal Gregory hit a ground ball-single to score Yarnell.
Colfax had the first run of the game.
Second baseman Mark Webber came up next and hit a line drive to centerfield, scoring Gregory for 2-0 Colfax.
“Of course, that was the end of our story,” said Parrish.
In the fourth inning, Adna’s Isaac Ingle hit an RBI-double to cut the Colfax lead to 2-1.
In the fifth neither team scored.
Then Adna took command in one flurry in the bottom of the sixth.
David Young hit a line drive to Bulldogs’ shortstop Garrett Burke before Adna’s Spencer Burbick hit a ground ball up the third baseline.
Bouncing off Colfax’s Kenton Lyman’s glove, the ball got away as Burbick took first.
Adna’s next batter, Marcus Hampton, walked and Ingle hit a short-hop single, bouncing off of home plate and over Colfax pitcher Danny Robinson’s head.
With the Bulldogs trailing 3-2 now, Robinson struck out Nolan Balzer for the second out before Adna’s Tyson Gray hit a single up the middle to score Hampton.
The Pirates led 4-2.
In the sixth for Colfax, Robinson hit a line drive to the shortstop for one out.
A leaping ground ball from Garrett to the pitcher made it two outs.
Then senior Jeff Davies struck out.
In the seventh, it was down to Colfax’s three final outs.
Lyman struck out first.
Yarnell hit a ground ball to the pitcher for the second out and Gfeller stepped into the batter’s box next.
It ended with a final strikeout.
“Swing and a miss,” said Parrish of the last pitch.
Robinson threw all seven innings of the championship game for Colfax to allow eight hits with four strikeouts, four walks and two earned runs.
Webber went 2 for 3 to lead at the plate with an RBI double, while Gregory went 1 for 3 with an RBI and Yarnell 1 for 2.
“We didn’t hit,” said Parrish.
“It’s hard to manufacture runs when you don’t have baserunners.” In the end, the coach was glad for what the team accomplished.
“It was a great season,” he said.
“I thought we’d be okay.
I didn’t know we’d be a state finalist… But you could just tell they had the fire.” State semifinal: Colfax 4, Toledo 2 With a slot in the state 2B championship game on the line last Friday night, Colfax led Toledo most of the way before having to fend off a sixth inning Indians’ rally.
With the score 0-0 in the third, Webber took first base on an error, stole second, then advanced to third base on a bad throw on the attempted steal of second.
Leading off third, Webber watched as Burke hit a fly ball, dropping into centerfield.
Webber took off for 1-0.
Yarnell, a sophomore, in the top of the fifth, then hit a triple followed by Gfeller with a base hit to score Yarnell for 2-0.
With one out, Gfeller got thrown out stealing second.
In the bottom of the fifth, Yarnell made a running catch back to the left field fence.
On the next pitch, Robinson fielded a ground ball at shortstop and gunned it to Dustyn Hall at first: got ‘em.
Two pitches later, Webber fielded a short hop and threw it to Hall for the third out.
Into the sixth, Colfax’s Gregory took first with an error and advanced on a balk.
A base hit from Webber then sent Gregory to third base.
He scored on a tag-up fly ball from Robinson.
Colfax led 3-0.
A cold breeze blew over the field and the green, wooden grandstands of the 1959 stadium.
In the bottom of the sixth, Toledo senior Konner Crawford hit a line drive for a base hit and took second on a passed ball.
The rally was underway.
The Indians’ Kolt Korpi followed with a line-drive RBI double to put Toledo on the scoreboard.
With one out, they trailed 3-1.
Wes Kuzminsky came up next and hit a single to score Korpi, 3-2.
“Now I’m getting nervous,” said Parrish.
A high fly ball to center made it two outs, caught by Gfeller.
Then a high-hop ground ball got through Robinson at short for two runners on with two outs.
A hopper up the first baseline, fielded by Hall finally ended the inning.
Into the seventh, Colfax’s Lyman and Arnell struck out before Gfeller landed a barely-fair fly ball up the first baseline for a double.
Hall then hit a ground ball up the middle and Gfeller scored, crossing sunlight before home plate.
Then Gregory struck out in four pitches.
Toledo, down to their final three outs, came up for the seventh.
Connor Vermilyea opened it with a shot to the left field wall for a double.
Then Korpi hit a blip ground ball to Lyman at third base, who threw to Hall for one out.
Vermilyea took third on a passed ball.
With Toledo down two runs, one out in the seventh, a man on third, they sent in a pinch runner, junior Alex Bacon.
Crawford came up next and hit a fly ball caught by Becker in right field for the second out.
Bacon hung at third, and two minutes later, a high fastball, a swing and the pop of Gregory’s glove touched off the Colfax celebration: 4-2 and a berth in the final.
Burke pitched all seven innings of the semifinal, allowing seven hits with five strikeouts, no walks and two earned runs.
Colfax lost the championship game the next day and now the second-place state plaque will go into the Colfax High trophy case across from the gym.
It marks the conclusion of the careers of four-year starting shortstop Burke and three-year starting second baseman Webber.
“Those guys were pretty rock solid,” Parrish said.
The loss put the Bulldog boys just short of the highest prize of a state championship, which the Colfax High class of 2015 girls’ teams have brought four of to the trophy case in the past two years (two volleyball, one basketball, one track).
“It’s hard,” said Webber.
“It’s awesome for them, though.
I think the best chance we had was with baseball.
Everyone was working hard, knowing it was our last shot.” Webber will graduate after a three-sport high school career in which he was a two-year starter in football (quarterback) and basketball and three-year starter in baseball.
In addition he was a lead in “South Pacific” last fall, among other school activities and graduates with a 3.8.
“Growing up, it was a lot faster than I wanted it to be because it was so much fun,” he said.
DeSales denoument: The only team Colfax lost to this year before the state final, DeSales, lost to Adna 10-1 in the semifinals.
They played next in the third-fourth place state game and beat Toledo 4-0.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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