CHIMACUM — The Chimacum Cowboys had a target on their back all spring.
Yet after all was said and done, they were the only ones left standing.
The Cowboys went wire-to-wire as the top-ranked baseball team in Class 1A during the regular season, then followed through on that promise by winning their second state title in five seasons Memorial Day weekend.
“Everyone starts the season and says ‘state champs,’ but there’s only one that’s going to be there at the end and we were fortunate to be that one,” first-year head coach Jim Dunn said.
“It’s a good feeling, it really is.”
The Cowboys (24-2 overall) returned trophy in hand to the high school gymnasium Tuesday afternoon for a special pep assembly held in their honor.
Three days after beating Tenino 8-4 in the state championship at Yakima County Stadium, the same euphoria that led them to pile on top of one another on the Yakima County Stadium infield after recording the final out remained fresh in their minds.
“It still feels the same as the last pitch, I’m still that excited,” said junior pitcher Landon Cray, who struck out the final two batters in Saturday’s win and was at the bottom of the celebratory dog pile. “It’s still an unreal moment.
“After I threw that last pitch I blacked out after I threw my glove. I don’t remember it really.”
Neither Cray nor his 11 teammates are likely to forget this season anytime soon.
Redemption
A year after losing the 1A championship game on the final at bat, and two years after finishing third, the Cowboys entered this spring on a mission.
They lost just three players from that 2010 runner-up squad, but also saw their head coach, Loren Bishop, step away as well.
His new job no longer afforded him the time to coach, so his assistant, Dunn, took over the program a few weeks before the season started.
Despite the change in leadership, everything else remained about the same.
“We pretty well stuck to what worked,” Dunn said. “The way it happened this year was the way it happened those last four or five years [under Bishop].
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
The only thing that needed fixing was the ending.
After walking away with third- and second-place finishes in consecutive state tournaments, all that was left for the team to do was to win the whole thing.
“I think last year motivated us a lot,” said Cray, a three-time 1A Nisqually League MVP and one of six starters who played on the 2009 and ’10 teams.
“We didn’t want to feel the same way we did last year [a 5-4 loss to Cashmere], just come so close and end up not winning in the end.
“Nobody wanted to feel that again, and we went out there and got it done.”
Indeed, Chimacum lost just one game to a 1A school all season: a 2-1 extra-innings defeat at the hands of Meridian in the tri-district championship.
After starting the season 1-1 in games against 2A Olympic League powers Kingston and North Kitsap, the Cowboys won 19 straight, including a 12-0 sweep of the 1A Nisqually League.
They had three dominant pitchers in Cray, Quinn Eldridge and Austin McConnell, a solid defense and a powerful offensive lineup that hit 22 home runs on the season.
All told, Chimacum outscored its opponents 228-39, posting 10 shutouts as they held the No. 1 ranking in 1A from start to finish.
“[That ranking] put high standards for us to play at high levels all the time,” said senior utility player Devin Manix, who hit .400 with four homers and 25 RBIs this season.
“It gave us a mindset, a demeanor of our team to play hard and play up to that standard, and we did for most of the year.
“We had struggles just like every other team in our own way, I guess, and then when we got [to state] it felt good to finally be back in Yakima. It felt just like it did last year.
“It almost took the stress out of being there.”
In control
The Cowboys were in control much of the weekend in Yakima.
Chimacum held the lead at the end all of but one of the 14 innings it played between Friday and Saturday.
When Bellevue Christian did manage to grab a 4-3 advantage in the top of the fourth inning in Friday’s semifinal, the Cowboys responded with a three-run fifth and never looked back.
McConnell earned the win and Cray the save in that 6-4 victory.
Then Cray went the distance in Saturday’s championship against Tenino.
Of the 42 recorded outs the Cowboys had while the left-hander was on the hill, 27 came by strikeout. (Cray had 118 strikeouts in 54 2/3 innings this season).
Meanwhile, McConnell was 3-for-4 at the plate with a triple and three RBIs, and Nos. 8 and 9 hitters Egan Cornachione and Michael Nordberg went a combined 4-for-6.
“I think that we definitely peaked this year at the end,” said Cray, who also broke a school record with nine homers this year.
“Our pitching was great, and then our bats came alive in that last game.
“I think that was the difference. We were good last year at hitting, but we didn’t have the clutch hits that when guys were on, we were moving them around this year.”
One can only imagine the changes that will take place between this year and next.
After all, Chimacum loses just two seniors in Manix and Dylan Brown-Bishop.
And the six-deep junior class — the “heart and soul” of the team, according to Dunn — will return intact with Cray, Eldridge and McConnell all four-year varsity players.
“We’ll just go out there and do it again next year and see how it ends up,” Dunn said.
“Hopefully, we’re having this conversation again next year.”
