CASTLE ROCK – The future looks bright for the La Center baseball team. But the Wildcats weren’t interested in waiting any longer to snap a 13-year state playoff drought.
Saturday, a team of mostly underclassmen earned La Center’s first state berth since 2005. The Wildcats beat Columbia-White Salmon 4-2 in a loser-out game to claim the district tournament’s third and final berth to the 1A state playoffs.
Freshman pitcher Irving Alvarez threw a complete game, striking out eight and allowing five hits at Castle Rock High School.
“I’m not surprised,” said senior catcher Hayden Williamson. “He’s done that all year. He struggled in our last game, but I knew he was going to forget that one game, come out and pitch a hell of a game.”
Alvarez also had the key hit as La Center scored all four of its runs with two outs in the fifth inning.
After sophomore Beau Castleberry drew a bases-loaded walk to tie the game 1-1, Alvarez drove in two runs with a sharp single. Castleberry would later score on a wild pitch.
“It was a fastball right down the middle,” Alvarez said. “I just couldn’t let it go.”
One of five seniors on the team, Williamson didn’t see weakness in a 16-man roster that has seven freshmen and two sophomores.
“I knew it after our first week,” he said. “What we had with our freshman combined with our seniors, this was the year we could make a deep run.”
So Williamson wasn’t shocked when Alvarez worked out of tense spots in the sixth and seventh innings.
Alvarez got an assist from a fellow freshman in the sixth. After the Bruins pulled within 4-2 on a one-out double, Adam Goodwillie hit a fly ball to right field. Freshman Tom Lambert made the catch, then threw out Davis Koester trying to score from third.
Columbia-White Salmon’s first two batters singled to begin the seventh. But Alvarez struck out the next two hitters, then got a game-ending ground ball.
La Center (14-7) won two of three games against White Salmon (17-7) in the Trico League this season. But Saturday’s game brought higher stakes.
And young La Center didn’t flinch.
“Composure is everything,” said Alvarez.
As the No. 3 seed from District 4, La Center will be back at Castle Rock next Saturday to face District 3 champion Bellevue Christian. The winner will play later that day against either King’s Way Christian or Meridian of Bellingham for a spot in the state semifinals.
After winning two loser-out games in the district tournament, Williamson said La Center is ready for the state-playoff pressure.
“Once we lost, it became win and advance,” he said. “Some of us were on the football team, so we have the experience of playing in these one-game elimination games.”
LA CENTER 4, COLUMBIA-WHITE SALMON 2
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La Center 000 040 x – 4 6 0
Columbia-White Salmon
Pitching – William Gross 5 IP, 5 K, 2 BB; Davis Koester 1 IP, 1 K, 0 BB. Offensive highlights – William Gross 1-1; Payden Webster 0-0, R, RBI; Shad Curtis 1-3, RBI, 2B; Trevor Cooper 1-2; Sean McMahon 1-1.
La Center
Pitching – Irving Alvarez 7 IP, 8 K, 3 BB. Offensive highlights – Saige Keep 1-2, R, Jack Ossenkop 3-3, R, SB; Beau Castleberry 1-2, R, RBI; Irving Alvarez 1-3, 2 RBI; Tom Lambert 1-3, R.
