Olympia holds off Puyallup to win 4A District 3/4 championship with shutdown night from Division I arms
KENT, Wash. — Back against the wall, Olympia turned to its strength: pitching.
First, senior Taber Fast, a Texas Tech-signed left-handed pitcher, threw 4 2/3 innings — the first three scoreless — and struck out seven as the Bears built an eight-run lead before fatigue got to him.
Then came junior lefty Sax Matson, a Washington State commit, to throw a perfect final 2 1/3 innings with four strikeouts, to help the Bears hold on.
“Those are the moments I love to be in, I really like to be there,” Matson, who threw 20 of his 28 pitches for strike, said. “Me and Taber always talk about those moments, so it was easy to just lock in and do my thing.”
The Bears (22-3) withstood a late comeback and beat Puyallup 8-4 at Kent-Meridian High School in a Saturday night matchup between the top two teams in the state, according to the WIAA’s RPI formula.
“I have more anxiety in those situations,” Olympia coach Derek Weldon said, “especially against a team like that, where you know they’re capable of putting up a lot of runs.”
Both advance through to the 4A regional round and present strong cases to be the Nos. 1 and 2 overall seeds. Seedings and matchups will be determined by seeding committees made up of coaches and athletic directors and released Sunday.
There’s a chance the two teams — who split the regular season series 1-1 — will see one another again, and both know it. Puyallup (20-4) is No. 1 and Olympia is No. 2 in the WIAA’s RPI rankings.
“It’s the third time we played them,” Weldon said. “Very much a rubber match kind of thing.”
Puyallup sophomore catcher Kai Halstead, Stanford commit, warms up on deck during the the Vikings' district semifinal win over Camas.
Photo by Andy Buhler
Logan Shephard sparked Olympia’s bats with a two-run home run in the second inning. Fast drove in two runs with a single in the fourth to put the Bears up 8-0.
Puyallup’s bats flared in the fifth. After a screaming line drive to center field sent senior Noah Fields to third, he stole home on the ensuing at-bat. Then a single sent sophomore Kai Halstead sliding head-first into home and sophomore Tristan Ringrose hit an RBI double to cut Olympia’s lead to 8-4.
With two outs and runners on second and third, Matson checked in and closed out the inning.
While spectators skewed chippy as the game wore on — at one point play paused and an Olympia fan was escorted out — Puyallup and Olympia players and remained locked into the game.
While the win gives Olympia plenty to celebrate and, Matson acknowledged, momentum entering next week, he said the Bears try to stay focused on the next opponent and not dwell on past results, no matter how momentous.
“It’s a good win,” Matson said. “We expect to win these big games. We just move onto the next. We start the round of 16 now, so anyone can beat anyone.”
More 4A District 3/4 berths
The fate of those qualified for regionals is in the hands of the seeding committees now.
Puyallup and Olympia are in. Who else from District 3/4 does it have to sort through when seeding the 16-team field?
Camas and Curtis, the other two semifinalists, secured berths entering Saturday’s slate of games. Curtis beat Camas 7-6 in the third place game.
The fifth and six berths were won through higher stakes. Tahoma beat Skyview 3-2 in a loser-out, winner-to-regionals game Saturday afternoon at Heritage Field. Sumner beat Rogers of Puyallup in the following game, 15-5, with the same stakes at play.
--Andy Buhler; @AndyBuhler.
