ANACORTES — The unthinkable happened at 1A regionals for the powerhouse Chimacum baseball team at regionals Saturday.
Kalama, with Lars Rider on the mound, shocked the defending state champion Cowboys with a 1-0 one-hit shutout victory in the regional championship game at Volunteer Field on Saturday evening.
Rider struck out 12 of the top hitters in the state and held them to a bunt single in seven innings.
Before that, the Cowboys were riding high after beating Ridgefield 7-4 in the regional first round Saturday morning.
The Cowboys, finishing the season at 19-1, struggled some early after giving up 2-0 and 4-3 leads to Ridgefield, but came roaring back with the victory.
Despite the scare against Ridgefield in the first round, Chimacum coach Jim Dunn wasn’t worried at the time.
“We’re in good shape,” he said.
“I want three more practices with my seniors [this coming week in preparation for the state championship]. I’m not ready yet to let them go.”
Unfortunately, he won’t get the extra time with his seniors, who finish their four-year career with an outstanding 77-10.
Dunn said he rolled the dice in giving Saturday morning’s start to Michael Nordberg, a strong pitcher who isn’t quite up to the same state-level caliber of his big three pitchers of Landon Cray, Quinn Eldridge and Austin McConnell.
Nordberg, a junior, gave Dunn three decent innings.
The Spudders took a 2-0 lead in the first but that didn’t concern Dunn because they got just one hit off Nordberg.
The pitcher, who throws hard, had some control issues with a hit batter and four walks.
“Walks killed us in the game,” Dunn said. “Nordberg wasn’t his sharpest.”
McConnell (4-0) came in and pitched three innings, giving up a run, while Eldridge threw the final scoreless inning, striking out the side.
Eldridge did, though, give up a hit and a walk to allow two base runners but they never got the chance to score.
The Cowboys scored three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to break open a 4-4 deadlock.
Cray opened that inning with a leadoff double.
Brady Anderson had the big hit in the inning. He hit a two-out single to right field to score two runs.
“He did well,” Dunn said about Anderson.
McConnell had two hits in the game, including a double.
Lucas Dukek, meanwhile, walked three times and scored all three times.
“Lucas had a very productive day,” Dunn said.
Regionals
Chimacum 7, Ridgefield 4
Ridgefield 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 — 4 5 4
Chimacum 3 0 0 0 1 3 x — 7 7 1
WP- McConnell (4-0)
Pitching Statistics
Chimacum: Nordberg 3 IP, 3 R, 4 K, 4 BB, 1 HB; McConnell 3 IP, 1 R, 4 K; Eldridge 1 IP, 0 R 1 H, 3 K, 1 BB.
Hitting Statistics
Chimacum: Cray 2 H, 2B; Dukek 3 BB, 3 R; Anderson 2 RBIs.
Track and Field
2A Districts
SUMNER — Cameron Braithwaite of Port Angeles and Jayson Brocklesby of Sequim both captured district 2A individual titles in the early going of the West Central District meet at Sunset Chev Stadium.
Braithwaite, who has dominated the jump events all year, won the triple jump Friday with a distance of 44 feet, 1 inch, winning the title by more than 2 feet.
The senior also will be going to state in javelin as his toss of 163-3 was good enough for fifth place.
The top five in each event qualify for the state championships coming up next weekend.
Brocklesby, meanwhile, captured his specialty, the high jump, with a height of 6-2.
On the girls side in early final results, Tarah Erickson of Port Angeles easily won the pole vault event with a height 11-3.
Erickson won by a distance of more than a foot.
