BELLINGHAM — The defending state champions flung off that lone monkey that has been clinging on their backs during the past five magical years.
Chimacum’s baseball team, 1A state champs in two of the last five years and first, second and third in state the past three seasons, has never won a tri-district title.
Until Saturday.
And it wasn’t easy as the Cowboys, who have easily smashed and 10-runned Nisqually League rival Charles Wright Academy in both of their league games, hung on for a 1-0 victory over the same team for the tri-district crown at Joe Martin Stadium on Saturday night.
Earlier in the day, the Cowboys did their normal stomping as they ripped Cedar Park Christian 11-1 behind Quinn Eldridge’s complete-game one-hitter and Landon Cray’s home run and four-RBIs performance.
Chimacum, now 18-0, will head into regionals this coming weekend as a No. 1 seed for the first time.
The Cowboys will open defense of their state championship against Ridgefield in Anacortes at Volunteer Park on Saturday at 10 a.m.
“Saturday is the big day,” Chimacum coach Jim Dunn said.
The Cowboys need two more wins to advance into the final-four championship bracket.
Dunn said he doesn’t believe the Cowboys have ever played Ridgefield before.
Dunn will put his team through a couple of light workouts today and Tuesday.
“We will take it easy, go through some motions and go home. But then we hit it hard Wednesday and Thursday, and do a walk-through Friday.”
Cray and Austin McConnell combined to toss a three-hitter against Charles Wright in the tri-district title game Saturday.
McConnell (3-0) came in the third inning and gave up just two hits and no runs while striking out six in five innings.
It was planned ahead of time to bring Cray out after two innings.
“McConnell did a phenomenal job for us,” Dunn said.
Charles Wright pitcher Coyne Reynolds held the explosive Cowboys to four hits.
“We have seen Reynolds before, but he did a good job of keeping the ball around the plate,” Dunn said.
It was one of those days, though, as the Cowboys put two runners on base in the third inning with no outs but couldn’t get a hit into the outfield.
“The end result was the same as our other two games against them, though,” Dunn said.
Chimacum won the game with a single run in the fifth inning on good base running by Egan Cornachione, who singled and stole second.
Mike Nordberg drove in Cornachione with the game-winning hit.
Chimacum 1, Charles Wright 0
Charles Wright 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 3 2
Chimacum 0 0 0 0 1 0 x — 1 4 2
WP- McConnell (3-0); LP- Reynolds
Pitching Statistics
Charles Wright: Reynolds 6 IP, 1 ER, 4 H.
Chimacum: Cray 2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 3 K; McConnell 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 6 K.
Hitting Statistics
Chimacum: Nordberg 1-4, game-winning RBI; Cornachione, R, SB.
Sequim out
TACOMA — The Big Boys crashed the consolation-bracket party in 2A West Central bi-district action last weekend, pushing aside the other teams.
And unfortunately for the Sequim Wolves, they were in the way of top-seed White River in the loser-out consolation semifinals at Foss High School in Tacoma on Saturday night.
White River, which was shocked by losing in the championship quarterfinals, bulldozed its way to the consolation final game by belting Olympic 10-4 and then doing the same, by an 11-3 score, to the Wolves on Saturday.
Earlier in the day, the Wolves beat rival Port Angeles in an emotional 6-1 game, scoring five runs in the top of the ninth inning after the two teams tied 1-1 after seven.
Now White River will take on North Kitsap, the Olympic League champion, in the loser-out consolation final game today.
The Vikings also were shocked in the championship quarterfinals, losing and then having to win two loser-out games just to get to a face-off of White River.
The North Kitsap-White River game probably should have been taking place in the championship final.
Boys Soccer
Port Angeles 1, Sumner 0
TUKWILA — The Roughriders are having their best season since 2000 when they took second in state at the 4A level.
They held off tough Sumner in the 2A West Central District game to advance to state for the first time since 2000.
Anthony Brandon scored the game-winning goal with one minute left to play.
The goal came on an assist from Tamrat Haskins, who played the ball across the goal mouth for Brandon to slam it home from close range.
The game was evenly played end to end for the majority of the first half.
After some halftime lineup adjustments made by Port Angeles coach Chris Saari, the Riders began to create chances and had the better of the play in the second half.
Goalkeeper Jack Doryland earned his seventh shutout of the season, and the entire defense played well to keep the South Puget Sound League No. 2 seed Spartans off the scoreboard, Saari said.
Port Angeles is the last school left representing the Olympic League as Kingston and North Kitsap both fell Saturday in district action.
Saari named Brandon the offensive player of the match while Nick Ioffrida was picked as the defensive player of the game.
Haskins and Hayden McCartney were named co-transition players of the game.
The Riders will be taking their 10-4-4 record into state against Tumwater on either Tuesday or Wednesday, site and time to be determined.
Softball
Sub-district playoffs
BREMERTON — The Port Angeles Roughriders split their two games while Sequim lost two in the sub-district tournament at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds on Saturday.
Both teams were playing seeding games only as the Wolves will take the No. 4 seed and the Riders the No. 7 seed into the West Central District championships this coming weekend at Sprinker Recreation Center in Tacoma.
The Wolves took the No. 4 seed after losing 8-7 to eventual sub-district champion Franklin Pierce in the first game, and then losing 6-1 to Interlake in the third-fourth place game.
The Riders, meanwhile, earned the seventh seed to districts after they lost 7-0 to White River in the first game and then beat Lindbergh 16-5 in the fifth-sixth place game.
Port Angeles will open districts against Fife on Friday, and that winner will take on Kingston in the second game.
Against White River, the Roughriders faced a “buzz-saw” in the way of White River freshman Kayla Smith of the South Puget Sound League.
Smith limited the Rider bats to four hits and shut out the Riders.
Lauren Curtis (7-2) took the loss for the Riders.
Getting hits for the Riders were Maddy Hinrichs, Sarah Steinman, Mariah Frazier and Tori Holcomb.
In the second game, the Riders blasted the Lindbergh Eagles in five innings.
Steinman (5-2) picked up the win as she limited the Eagle bats to four hits.
Frazier led the Riders at the plate by going 3 for 4, just missing the cycle, hitting a single, double and a triple.
She scored twice and had an RBI.
Hannah Wahto was 2 for 3 with three RBIs and she scored three times.
Hinrichs was 2 for 3, scoring three times with an RBI.
Tori Holcomb was 2 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI while Meleny Fors’ lone hit was an inside-the-park home run.
The Riders now move on to district play with a 14-4 record.