Hartley, Gaither toss gem, I-5 Toyota coasts into state championship
Jul. 25—For anyone who may have wondered during April and May just what would happen if you put the best arms in the 2A EvCo into one pitching staff, well, here you go.
Centralia I-5 Toyota/Mountain Dew trotted out its fourth first-team all-leaguer to the mound in as many days on Tuesday, and Rochester's Braden Hartley put down yet another dominant start in a 7-0 win over Whatcom Post 7.
"He's been progressing, that was good to see," I-5 coach Lyle Overbay said. "It felt like he was more on as far as throwing strikes, and that's been his downfall is not throwing enough strikes. He's got all the good stuff."
Hartley threw six innings of shutout ball, giving up one hit and walking three.
In the seventh, Overbay gave the ball to Trenton Gaither — Tumwater's second ace, who in May earned the win in the 2A state title game — just to prove how much depth he has on the mound.
Through four games, Overbay has used seven pitchers, six of which — Hartley, Gaither, Hunter Lutman, Alex Overbay, and Tucker Weaver — come from the 2A EvCo. Those six have combined to allow just one earned run and 12 hits.
"A couple of years ago, we got into it where we didn't have the pitching, and it was like, 'We've got to have some pitcher-only (guys),'" Overbay said. "Now that we do, we can play a lot of games and keep everybody fresh and building and ready for the opportunity."
And now thanks to only playing one game per day, Overbay goes into the championship Wednesday with Lutman eligible again, along with Gaither (who only needed 13 pitches to work an easy inning), Weaver, and Timberline's Tyler McClellan back on the shelf, and Tenino's Kellan Knox, who has yet to appear this weekend.
At the plate Tuesday, the Dewers never really broke out into a big inning, but manufactured runs in the third, fourth, and fifth to build up a comfortable 4-0 lead. Three of those runs came on sacrifice flies, and I-5 added another sac fly in the sixth to make it 5-0 before the Whatcom bullpen collapsed, walking in two more runs.
Evan Stajduhar (W.F. West) had the Dewers' only run-scoring hit of the day, on a line drive RBI single up the middle in the fourth. Brayden Oram (Tumwater) drove in a pair of runs and scored one himself, while Joaquin Velez-Fucal (North Thurston) doubled for the second straight day.
Centralia I-5 Toyota/Mountain Dew will play for the state title Wednesday at 11 a.m., taking on a Lakeside Recovery team it beat 6-1 on Monday. Given the double-elimination format, the undefeated Dewers have to win one game, while Lakeside would need to win twice.
