Posse sweeps district, secures top state ticket

Payton Kallaher finishes a slide into the plate Friday while the Ferris catcher waits for a late throw.

Jake Wells throws against Ferris in the first game of area action. Wells struck out 10 in the quarter-final.

Pullman Posse defeated North Central 8-7 with a comeback win in the last inning Sunday to finish a sweep of the Legion area 3 playoff at Spokane. Posse, which went into the playoff as the number-one team with an undefeated league record, takes the number-one area seed into the state AA Legion state playoff which will start Saturday at Borleske Stadium in Walla Walla.

Posse played North Central Sunday at Spokane's Jackson field in the title game after topping Ferris 8-5 in the quarter-final round Friday and then topping Asotin Blues 8-3 in the semi-final round Saturday. Both games were at Pullman High School

In the championship game Sunday at Spokane, North Central scored five runs in the top of the last inning to post a 7-4 lead, but Posse answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning for the one-run win. Kyle Appel singled to score the winning run and end the game.

North Central, which will be the number-two state entry from the area, booked a total of 13 hits off three Posse pitchers. Posse totaled eight hits with Appel, Zane Wilson and Grady Benton each getting two hits.

Saturday, Posse bagged a guarantee for a state ticket with the win over the Asotin County Blues back at Quann Field. Pomeroy's Hogan Heytvelt went to the mound for Posse and allowed four hits in pitching all the way Saturday for the 8-3 semi-final win.

Heytvelt allowed one earned run, four Asotin hits, struck out five, walked three and hit one Blues batter.

Posse scored two runs in the second inning and added six in the fifth. Appel cracked a two-run double for the top Posse hit, and Wilson had another pair of singles.

Friday at Pullman High, Posse scored four runs in the second inning and added three in the fifth to take an 8-3 lead going into the last inning against Ferris in the quarter-final.

Ferris came back to score two in the top of the seventh, but the rally fell short, and Posse booked the 8-5 win to advance.

Jake Wells pitched into the seventh inning and allowed just three hits to take the win. Connor Parrish finished on the mound.

Wells fanned 10 Ferris batters, walked five and allowed two earned runs and three hits. Parrish came in to get the last out of the game.

Posse had 10 hits in the quarter-final with Payton Kallaher tagging a triple and a single, and Wells and Wilson each rapping a double and a single.

Ferris advanced to the quarter-final after defeating Colville the previous day in a play-in game.

Posse advances to the state show Saturday with a 28-3 record. One of those losses was to North Central in an early season clash which was booked as a non-league round. Posse will play Sedro Wooley at 1 p.m. Saturday in the first round of the State AA Legion action at Borleske Stadium in Walla Walla. Their game is opposite the Chehalis-Walla Walla game in the 16- team state finals which follows a double elimination format. Winners of the two games will play Sunday at 7 p.m. and losers will play at 1 p.m.

The state show continues for six days with the title game set for Thursday.