Toledo stops Bulldogs one game short of state

The Toledo Indians, a team Colfax stopped in the semi-final round of the state playoffs last year, stopped Colfax one game short of the state finals Saturday, May 21, with a 2-0 shutout in the last round of the regionals at Eastmont. The Indians advanced to the four-team state final this week at Centralia.

Colfax came to the end of the season after taking out Okanogan 6-3 in the first round of the playoff at Eastmont. Colfax stacked an early lead against Okanogan and kept it behind the sharp pitching of junior Danny Robinson.

“We played Toledo last year in the semi round, so we knew what we were getting into,” coach Mike Parrish commented on the game for the state ticket. Toledo scored its two runs in the top of the game on the bats of the first three batters. After that, the scoring stopped.

“It was really a case of just not getting the hits when we needed them to score,” Parrish said. The Bulldogs, who matched the Indians’ offense with five hits, put runners on the bases, but just did not collect.

They left a total of eight runners on base over the seven innings.

A lot of the reason was the pitching performance of Toledo starter Wes Kuzminsky, who struck out nine Bulldogs and walked just two.

“He threw hard, and he had a curve ball with a bite. We have trouble hitting a curve ball because we just don’t see it that much,” Parrish noted.

Kuzminsky took the win after pitching three frames for Toledo in their opening win over Warden in the first round at Eastmont.

Singles by Jackson Kuzminsky and Wes Kuzminsky and a walk scored the only two runs of the game. The RBI hit came with two outs.

Colfax senior Dustyn Hall allowed five hits, struck out nine Indians, walked three and hit three batters in taking the loss.

Each team had two errors.

In the Eastmont opener against Okanogan, Colfax opened a 5-0 lead after four innings to take control of the game on the way to the 6-3 win. Colfax finished with six hits against the O-dogs.

Junior Danny Robinson allowed five hits, struck out just two and walked just one in bagging the win.

Colfax scored two in the first inning with Robinson tagging a single to score Cal Gregory and Nathan Akesson hitting a sacrifice fly to score Robinson.

Colfax added three runs in the fourth with Parker Huber tagging a double, Matt Sharp drawing a walk and Hall rapping a two-run double. Gregory singled in Hall for the third run.

The last Colfax run came in the sixth with Logan Gingerich hitting a sacrifice fly to score Kyle Appel, who earned the base with a walk.

The Colfax season finished at 22-2 with 21 of the wins in a string that ended two weeks ago with a loss to the Asotin Panthers.

Asotin advanced to state with two wins in the regional round, which was moved from Saturday’s rain in Spokane to unusual Sunday rounds at Yakima.

Colfax will graduate just three seniors off the 22-2 squad with Dustyn Hall, Kenton Lyman and Keith Gfeller. They will leave a gap in this year’s pitching lineup, but the Bulldogs figure to start the next season with a strong lineup of players who gained experience this year.