BELLEVUE — Alex McGarry thought he had a triple.
His coach wanted more.
With Stephen Donohue waving his arm from the third-base coach area, McGarry just kept running.
Then he slid underneath the tag attempt, setting off quite a celebration behind home plate with all of his Columbia River teammates.
McGarry had himself a two-run, inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the seventh inning of the first round of the Class 3A state baseball playoffs, giving Columbia River a 5-4 victory over Seattle Prep at Bannerwood Park.
“It was hot,” McGarry said of the dog-pile. “Running all the way around the bases, that’s a long way. I’m screaming and yelling and then everyone is on top of me.”
McGarry said he always figured the weight of such a pile would be uncomfortable. But he said he didn’t feel that.
“I just couldn’t breathe,” he said, because it was so hot.
“It’s something you can’t describe. It’s an incredible feeling.”
Columbia River will play later Sunday in the state quarterfinals. The Chieftains are waiting for the winner of Eastside Catholic-Sumner game.
Reaching the quarterfinals, though, is an accomplishment after the Chieftains went the first three innings without a hit against Seattle Prep.
Jesse Franklin hit a three-run home run for the Panthers in the top of the third inning. Seattle Prep pitcher Will Rahlmann was getting the job done early, too, for his squad.
“That was a really good arm,” McGarry said of Rahlmann. “A lot of movement. He was effective.”
River, though, got back with a run here, a run there. Paul Meister had a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, Taylor Easterly did the same in the sixth inning.
Prep would add a run in the top of the seventh for a 4-2 advantage.
Garrett McKee hustled to third base after a Seattle Prep error to open the bottom of the seventh. He scored on a sac fly from Shawn Craig to make it a one-run game.
Koben Jamison earned a one-out walk, setting up McGarry.
“My whole goal was to not think of anything,” McGarry said. “Baseball is really mental. You overthink it. I was really trying to think of nothing.”
He found his pitch and crushed it to right-center field. At first, he was worried it would be caught. Then he said he had triple in mind. Then he saw Donohue.
“Might as well,” McGarry said.
Yes, might as well race home and send the Chieftains to the state quarterfinals.
COLUMBIA RIVER 5, SEATTLE PREP 4
S. Prep 003 000 1—4 8 3
C. River 000 101 3—5 5 0
Seattle Prep
Pitcher — Will Rahlmann 6.1 IP, loss.
Highlights — Kyle Lydon 1-3; Jacob Terao 1-3; Jesse Franklin 2-3, HR, 3 RBI; Josh Ostrander 1-4; Aaron Kim 2-4, 2B, RBI; Martin Padilla 1-3.
Columbia River
Pitchers — Dakota Mason 2+ IP; Nick Nygard 3.1 IP; Taylor Easterly 1.2 IP, win.
Highlights — Josh Ebert 1-3, 2B; Brian Rice 1-2; Paul Meister 1-2, RBI; Alex McGarry 2-4, HR, 2 RBI (walk-off HR); Taylor Easterly 0-1, RBI; Shawn Craig 0-2, RBI.
