High School Baseball: Toutle Lake survives ‘craziest game’ to reach State semifinals
The State Roundup: Naselle offense explodes in quarterfinals; plus the rest of The Blast Zone reports
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WIAA Prep Baseball / State Reports
Ducks down ‘Canes, clip No. 2 Coyotes in ‘long day’ at State
The Toutle Lake baseball team was too tired to talk after a State doubleheader, and it’s easy to understand why. The Fighting Ducks began their Saturday with a three-hour drive to Yakima before getting off the bus and handling Mount Vernon Christian a 12-2 in the opening round of the 2B State Tournament at Faller Field.
And with a three-hour return trip to look forward to, that would have been enough to make even the angriest of birds sleepy. But the Ducks were just getting started.
What came next was a quarterfinal slugfest against No. 2 ranked Kittitas that ended (mercifully) as a 20-19 victory in extra innings for the Cowlitz County flock.
“Game 2 was the craziest game I’ve ever seen,” Toutle Lake head coach Chris Byrd said via text from the other side of Washington’s most famous mountain range.
Asked if he had time to talk in the immediate aftermath, Byrd understandably deferred
“Tomrrow work?”
Aboslutely. And the wait was worth it, because some incredible numbers surfaced overnight and looked even crazier in the daylight.
The lated more than four hours and included:
4+ hours of game time
440 total pitches
10 lead changes
31 hits
36 bases on balls
After getting started in full afternoon sunlight, the contest dragged on until both the lights and sprinkler system kicked on. The twenty runs scored by the Ducks are tied for third highest ever scored in a State game by a BZM area team.*
“I’ve coached baseball for a long time and seen lots and lots of baseball games. Never quite seen one like that,” Byrd noted once he’d had some time to recover back home at the nest.
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