The Pierce College Raiders, winners of the last three Western Region division championships, have been in this spot before. Having swept the TCC Titans on Saturday at Mount Tahoma High School, all they needed was a split of the Mother’s day twin bill to claim their fourth in a row.
In the opener, TCC’s Justin Vernia scattered seven hits in a complete game effort as the Titans won 3-1 to make the second seven-inning matchup the game that would propel the winner into the number one seed from the Western Region on May 22 in Longview.
Trailing 3-2 entering the seventh inning, the Raiders would send 14 men to the plate and erupt for nine runs, cruising to an 11-3 win and claiming their fourth consecutive NWAAC Western Region championship. The victory also sealed-up the number 1 seed in the eight-team round robin tournament that will eventually crown the NWAACC champion.
“I’m just so excited for these young men and am in a state of euphoria that will last for a long time,” said Raiders head coach Ken Davis, who has guided Pierce to the previous three titles.
The feeling was different on the other side of the diamond.
“It is a big disappointment the way we played, but we’ll have to pick ourselves up and look forward to facing Lower Columbia next week,” said Titans head coach Ryan Mummert, whose team will have to beat Lower Columbia two out of three times to claim the number two spot in the NWAACC tournament Saturday May 17.
If the teams split on Saturday, they’ll play the tiebreaker on Sunday to decide the West Region’s number two seed.
In the opener, TCC’s Vernia and Pierce’s Cobi Beal took command early and kept both teams off-balance for most of the game. With the game tied at one in the fifth, Jeremy Spring would give the Titans the lead for good with an RBI single to score Matthew Hirsch and give TCC a 2-1 advantage. They would add another run when John Hicks laced a two-out single to right field to score Reed Johnson for a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning. Vernia would shut down the vaunted Raider offense the rest of the way and the stage would be set for the dramatic final game.
With the number one seed from the Western Region at stake, Pierce’s Cole Uvila helped stake his team to an early lead. Uvila would carry a no-hitter into the fifth inning when the Titan offense would come to life. With runners on second and third with one out, Spring would single to score Derik Bontempo to cut the Raider lead to 2-1. With two on and two outs, Reed Johnson would line a single to center field to score both Matthew Hirsch and Spring and TCC would carry a 3-2 lead all the way to the top of the seventh inning.
With the bases loaded and one out, cleanup hitter DJ Gee would step to the plate with the season on the line.
“My dad taught me at an early age, sit back and be patient and you’ll eventually get you’re pitch,” said Gee who laced a double just inside the bag to score both Dalton Elmer and Leo Valenti to give the Raiders a 4-3 lead, and they would never look back, plating seven more to finish off the inning scoring nine runs.
As the last TCC batter went down, the Raiders celebration began as the team flew out of the dugout.
“It was an emotional game, TCC is a very good club who will be back,” said Davis. “We’ll take a while to enjoy this and get ready for the NWAACC tourney in a couple of weeks.”
“It was a tough way to go out,” said Mummert. “The errors cost us and we could not get it done in the seventh. We’ll have to put this one behind us and get ready for next weekend.