It was a wild and strange trip, but the Ridgefield baseball team is headed to the Class 1A state playoffs.
The Spudders scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the game and two more in the bottom of the eighth to beat Tenino 4-3 in a 1A district playoff Friday at Castle Rock.
It didn’t look like the Spudders were going anywhere when they trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh and had not advanced a runner to third all game.
But in the seventh, Austin Quigly led off with a single and went to second on a single by Ian Williams.
Quigly scored on a double by Nick Martin. And Williams scored the tying run on a single by Jarrett Brown.
In the top of the eighth, after having a runner called out at home for leaving the base path to avoid a tag, Tenino loaded the bases.
The Tenino coach called the runner at third over to talk to him, but did not call timeout. When the Ridgefield players did not pay attention to him, the runner sprinted home to score the go-ahead run.
“I’ve never seen or heard anything like this play,” Ridgefield coach Josh Leedy said. “It caught us totally off-guard and took momentum right away from us.”
In the bottom of the eighth, Joe Siegel led off with a single for Ridgefield. Quigly got another hit — his 15th of the season. Williams tried to bunt the runners over and reached safely on a fielder’s choice, loading the bases.
Martin walked to force in the tying run. Then Sam Gillenwater was hit by a pitch to force in the winning run.
Brady Williams held Tenino to two runs on two hits in 6 innings pitched. Quigly got the victory in relief.
Ridgefield will face Hoquiam at noon today in a state seeding game. If the Spudders win, they will head to the Anacortes Regional. If they lose, they’ll go to the Castle Rock Regional.
Boys soccer
Ridgefield 2, Rochester 1, PKs — Jared Williams scored the Spudders only goal in the 28th minute on an assist from Francisco Jimenez, and Ridgefield went on to win on a penalty kick shootout 5-4 to capture the 1A district championship.
Ridgefield will host a 1A state tournament game on Tuesday as District 4’s No. 1 seed.
