BASEBALL: Decatur headed back to the state tournament for the first time since 1999

For the first time since 1999, the Decatur baseball program will play at the state tournament. The Gators guaranteed a berth in the 16-team Class 3A state with a pair of wins Saturday at the West Central/Southwest District Tournament at Tacoma’s Heidelberg Park.

“It is very cool for the boys and the entire school,” said second-year head coach Korey Sites.

Decatur (16-10) has been to the state tournament a grand total of eight times in the history of the school, but hasn’t won a game since 1988. The Gators will be trying to get their first victory in a quarter century Saturday when they take on the O’Dea Irish at 10 a.m. at Ed Wheeler Field in Centralia.

Decatur beat a pair of Vancouver-area teams Saturday. First, the Gators and Chris Carns shut out the Mountain View Thunder, 2-0, then beat Columbia River, 5-4, to earn the trip to state. The win over Mountain View clinched the trip to the state tournament.

In the opener, Carns was the story on the mound. The junior threw a complete-game, two-hitter, including 11 strikeouts. The only thing that hurt Carns was the fact that he walked eight and hit another batter.

“(He) was dominant on the mound for us,” Sites said. “His walks put him in some tough situations with runners in scoring position. But he was always able to work himself out of it. I can’t remember one hard hit ball off of him.”

Carns was also assisted by the Gators’ most consistent defensive effort of the season, including a big-time performance by senior catcher Mitchell Ciotta.

Offensively, Decatur gave Carns all the help he needed with single runs in the first and seventh innings. Sophomore Isaiah Hatch finished 2 for 3 with a run and Jim Sullivan and Carns both had RBI singles. Ciotta tallied the Gators’ other run.

In the nightcap Saturday, Decatur scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh to break a 3-3 tie and earn the Gators the district’s fifth seed to state.

Ciotta walked to start the seventh and Sullivan followed with a double to left-center field to put runners on second and third. Chris Grimstad, who entered in the third inning as a defensive replacement, then laid down a perfect suicide squeeze to score pinch-runner Tyler Swanson.

Two pitches later, Sullivan scored from third on a wild pitch with, what proved to be, the winning run. Columbia River’s Michael McCann connected on a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh to tighten the score to 5-4.

James Marshall picked up the win on the mound after throwing four innings. Garrett Westberg earned the save for Decatur in his three innings of work. The duo gave up only five hits.

Sullivan finished the game 3 for 4 with two RBIs, a double and a run scored and fellow senior Brandon Zimmerman was 1 for 3 with a run, RBI and double.

O’Dea qualified for the state tournament after finishing second at the Metro League Tournament. The Irish (13-8) lost to Bainbridge in the title game Saturday, 14-8. Decatur and O’Dea will be joined in Centralia by Auburn Mountainview and Glacier Peak, who will play at 1 p.m. The two winners will play at 4 p.m. with a berth into the 3A semifinals at stake. The semifinals and finals will be played at GESA Stadium in Pasco, May 24 and 25.

The state tournament appearance comes just a year after Decatur finished just 3-12 during the South Puget Sound League 3A regular season.

“As the season has progressed, we’ve become a lot better at executing and paying attention to the details,” Sites said of the 2013 Gators. “I know it’s cliche, but playing together as a team is the only way to make it this far and that’s exactly what we did. Not everyone gets to be the starting pitcher or the cleanup guy, but we need everyone to excel at their roles even if they aren’t glamorous and I’ve been proud of the way our players have handled it despite some difficult, humbling circumstances.”