LA CENTER — If you’re the La Center Wildcats, it’s hard not to view Tuesday’s baseball doubleheader split as a bit of a disappointment.
Same could be said for the King’s Way Christian Knights.
A sweep by either team would have gone a long way in determining the 1A Trico League’s champion and No. 1 seed into the district tournament.
Instead, the teams’ split — a 4-3 Game 1 win for La Center and a 9-7 nightcap victory by King’s Way — makes Friday’s regular-season finale between the clubs at Luke Jensen Park important yet again.
That’s the all-important No. 1 district seed. The double-elimination 1A District IV tournament begins Monday.
By virtue of a one-game lead on King’s Way coupled by one of the two victories Tuesday, La Center (11-5 overall, 9-2 league) clinches at least a share of the league title. King’s Way (12-5, 8-3) can earn a share of the league title, too, Friday, with a win. White Salmon (8-3 league) remains in the mix for a co-league championship with a win Friday against Castle Rock coupled with a King’s Way victory. District seeding would be determine led by a coin flip if all three teams are 9-3 after Friday.
La Center last won a baseball league title in 1998. Head coach Rob Williamson had a good feeling the momentum from the 4-3 win, highlighted by Beau Castleberry’s walk-off RBI single in a 2 for 4 game and Clint Smith’s five-inning start on the mound, would carry over into a sweep facing Knights ace pitcher Damon Casetta-Stubbs in the nightcap.
“I really did,” Williamson said. “Damon is tough … he’s always been tough. When he’s throwing his slider, he’s tough.”
But miscues by La Center aided in King’s Way’s 5-0 lead after three innings. Casetta-Stubbs, like fellow King’s Way starter Sam Lauderdale, who struck out 12 over 5 2/3 innings in the first game, pitched in front of more than a dozen professional scouts.
Casetta-Stubbs touched as high as 92 mph with nine strikeouts through four. He exited after five innings and 92 pitches thrown nursing a 6-4 lead.
The middle innings is when La Center cut the deficit. An RBI double by the No. 8 hitter, freshman Michael Goode, made it a 6-5 game.
And it was Casetta-Stubbs, playing first base the final two innings, who started a three-run seventh for the Knights’ insurance runs. He later scored on Hunter Aarhus’ two-RBI triple.
It’s been nothing but a season full of successes for La Center. A year after playing its best ball late to reach regionals with a below-.500 record, the Wildcats entered Tuesday winning nine of their past 10 games.
Senior Saige Keep is one of five seniors on a team that started four freshmen Tuesday, including Tom Lambert, who went six innings in the loss. Keep believes the Wildcats’ ceiling is as high as they want it to be.
“I see a lot of potential with this team,” Keep said. “We’re a bunch of great kids and great athletes on the field. If everything goes our way and we play the way we can, we definitely can go all the way.”
And it starts Friday.
