With the state baseball tournament berth already clinched on Tuesday, Federal Way was hoping to add a district championship to their accolades.
They came up just short when they walked home the winning run against Puyallup in a 4-3 loss on Saturday.
Federal Way began the day taking on Gig Harbor in the district semifinals, beating the Tides 2-1. They got a slow start in that game and did not drive in a run until the sixth inning. They finished the game with only two hits.
The Eagles didn’t need a hit to win the game in the bottom of the eighth inning – a wild pitch allowed Ben Koler to score the winning run and send Federal Way to the district championship.
Puyallup sent Michael Newstrom, one of their many left-handed pitchers, to the mound in the championship. Federal Way countered with Tyler Praven.
Newstrom put together a strong five innings for the Vikings. He started by getting Ben Koler to ground out by him and then walked Christian Jones, but he bounced back by retiring the next five batters, three of them by strikeout.
Puyallup was able to make some contact with the ball early, garnering two hits in the first inning, but Praven was still able to force most of the batters into easy fly outs to keep the score level at zero for two innings.
Jeff Cochran got the first hit for Federal Way in the top of the third inning, but he was picked off at first by Newstrom shortly thereafter. Newstrom then struck out the final two batters of the inning.
Things began to unravel a bit for the Eagles in the bottom of the third. Three errors resulted in three runs for Puyallup.
After a fly out started the inning, Riley Pletcher was able to reach base with a single to center field. Pletcher stole second, then managed to reach third after an errant throw to second from Praven in a pick-off attempt. Collin Wolf drew a walk to put runners on the corners.
Ryan Teague hit a sacrifice fly to score Pletcher and give the Vikings a 1-0 lead with two outs in the inning.
Jones then committed errors on back-to-back plays, resulting in two more runs for the Vikings. He misplayed the first ball after it bounced in front of him in the outfield, resulting in runners on second and third.
The second run came after a pitching change sent Luke Tedrick to the mound. Michael Spellacy hit a double for the Vikings, picking up two RBIs and moving to third on a throwing error.
The Vikings led 3-0 after three innings.
It didn’t take long for Jones to atone for his third inning mistakes. On the second pitch in the top of the fourth inning, he crushed a fastball over the center field wall, cutting the deficit to two.
“That was one of the better balls he’s hit all year,” said Federal Way head coach Arlo Evasick.
With Jones up to bat again in the sixth inning, Newstrom tried to work around the plate. Jones didn’t take the bait and drew a four-pitch walk.
Spellacy took over on the mound for Puyallup after the walk.
Eddie Peraza immediately took advantage of the new pitcher, hitting a triple off the left-center field wall to score Jones. Two batters later, the Eagles tied the game on a Dawson Bakker single that brought Peraza home.
Puyallup threatened to score in the bottom of the sixth after an error put Spellacy on base. It looked like the Vikings were going to have runners on the corners after a single by Kevin Robillard, but Calvin Turchin showed off his arm from right field and threw Spellacy out at third.
Federal Way was able to get out of the inning with the game still tied at 3-3. They were unable to manage more than another Jones walk in the top of the seventh.
The Vikings started the bottom half of the final inning with a walk. The next batter, Wolf, was called out after leaving the batter’s box on a bunt attempt.
Pletcher stole second, ending the Eagles’ hopes at turning a double play and going to extras on the next batter. They decided to intentionally walk Teague and brought in Koler to pitch.
Koler walked the first batter he faced in six pitches. With Spellacy at the plate and the bases loaded, Koler pitched his way to a full count. His sixth pitch was called a ball the Vikings took the victory with the walk-off walk.
“It’s a game of inches,” Evasick said. “They had some good at-bats that last inning and laid off some pitches that were tough. Kudos to them.”
Jones was 1-for-1 with a home run and three base on balls for Federal Way. Bakker was 2-for-3 with an RBI.
Newstrom finished after giving up four hits, two runs, and two walks, and he struck out 11 batters in five innings of work for Puyallup. Spellacy was 1-for-3 with a base on balls and three RBIs.
With the win, Puyallup earned the top seed from the West Central District to the state tournament and will play Cascade (15-8) in the first round. They were originally scheduled to play in Vancouver for their regional, but it has since been changed to Foss High School after all District 4 teams were eliminated in their crossovers with the District 2 teams.
Federal Way (20-4) earned the second seed to the state tournament and will play Woodinville (17-6) in the first round at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma. The winner will face the winner of the 1 p.m. game between Emerald Ridge (18-6) and Snohomish (17-6) 45 minutes after the latter game concludes.
