Class 4A baseball: Kentwood loses title game to Southridge

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YAKIMA — Matt Hague gazed through glistening eyes at the dancing mass across the diamond. Though few expected his Kentwood baseball team to make it to yesterday's Final Four, let alone last night's Class 4A state championship game, the Conquerors' star player couldn't help but think what might have been.

The unranked Southridge Suns of Kennewick were celebrating after a 6-4 victory for their first state championship.

But, what if?

What if Kentwood had not given up three runs in the first inning? What if some of those hard-hit balls, one or two even, had fallen for base hits instead of being caught for outs?

What if the Kentwood bats, the same ones that had pounded out 15 hits in a morning semifinal upset of second-ranked Hudson's Bay, had been even half as effective in the nightcap?

So many questions.

"Just grief, basically," said Hague, staring across the field at Yakima County Stadium. "I'm just looking at that trophy."

As in the one that this morning belongs to Southridge after its victory over the 10th-ranked Conquerors.

Both teams were unlikely Final Four entrants, beginning the day with 18 losses between them (nine apiece) — more than twice as many as Hudson's Bay and Lake Washington, the other two semifinalists, combined (seven).

Indeed, not since Richland in 1996 has a team with nine losses played for a big-school state baseball title. That year, the Bombers fell to a Willie Bloomquist-led team from South Kitsap, 13-4.

"No one expected us to be here at all," said Hague, who pitched the Conquerors (16-10) to an 8-4 semifinal victory over Hudson's Bay earlier yesterday. "We battled."

Kentwood's runner-up finish in baseball completed a remarkable year for the school's high-profile boys sports programs. The football team, state champions in 2001 and '02, qualified for the state playoffs last fall, while the basketball team, led by the Stuckey brothers, Rodney and Ronnie, won the state title in March.

"It has been an absolutely amazing ride," said first-year Kentwood baseball coach Jon Aarstad. "I wouldn't have rather taken it with another group of kids."

Southridge (19-9), in only its seventh season of varsity baseball, was making its first-ever Final Four appearance.

Senior Lonnie Lechelt turned in the most memorable performance, going 2 for 3 with a double, a home run and scoring two runs. He also pitched 5-2/3 innings in relief, allowing just one run on two hits and single-handedly keeping Kentwood at bay.

"We came together," said Lechelt, who will play next season at Oregon State. "This is the funnest postseason trip I've ever been a part of. I can't imagine it being any better."

Lechelt put Southridge ahead 4-3 with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the third inning, slicing the first pitch he saw inside the right-field foul pole, 293 feet away.

The blast was Lechelt's second of the day and fourth this season. He also homered in the Suns' 10-9 semifinal victory over Lake Washington, hooking a solo shot around the left-field foul pole at the same distance.

He ended the day 5 for 6 with three doubles, two home runs and five runs batted in.

The Suns had two more runs in the fifth. Lechelt doubled with one out, scrambled to third on a wild pitch, then raced home when Kentwood catcher Nathan Soper's throw missed the mark and ended up in left field.

Sophomore Jordan Reeder doubled in Southridge's other run in the inning, scoring Matt Didesidero with two outs.

Southridge grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning against Kentwood starter Cameron Litzenberger, who struggled to find the strike zone. Litzenberger, a junior, allowed two walks, hit a batter and yielded a run-scoring single before being relieved by senior Ryan Parmenter after just two outs and 23 pitches.

Southridge starter Forrest Rice didn't fare much better. He lasted 1-1/3 innings (27 pitches).