The Decatur baseball team is one win away from the Class 3A State Tournament. The Gators (14-10) split a pair of West Central/Southwest District games earlier this week, beating Wilson Tuesday and losing to Auburn Mountainview Wednesday.
Next up for Decatur is a loser-out, winner-to-state game against Vancouver’s Mountain View High School at 1 p.m. at Tacoma’s Heidelberg Park on Saturday. The winner will play again at 7 p.m. at Heidelberg in a seeding game against the winner of a game between Shelton and Columbia River.
The Gators picked up a huge 6-1 win Tuesday in the opening round of the district tournament over Wilson. The game was a loser-out contest.
The Gators got a big two-run double from Brandon Zimmerman in the top of the fourth inning to break open a scoreless tie. Decatur went on to score three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and two more in the sixth.
Zimmerman finished 3 for 3 with two RBIs and three doubles and Taylor Havilcek was 2 for 4 with a run for the Gators. Chris Carns picked up the win on the mound.
Auburn Mountainview 5, Decatur 1
The Gators’ offense struggled against the Lions Wednesday at Auburn Mountainview High School. The Lions’ Nick Brooks limited Decatur to only two hits on the day.
Zimmerman had the Gators’ first hit with a one-out double in the sixth inning. He scored on an RBI ground ball by Isaiah Hatch. The only other hit came from Mitch Ciotta in the seventh.
Jansen Junk pitched well and kept Decatur in the game. The Gators trailed just 2-1 through five innings, but the Lions put the game away in the bottom of the sixth with three runs. It was Auburn Mountainview’s fourth win over Decatur this season.
Emerald Ridge 5, Beamer 3
The Titans’ (14-9) had their season ended Wednesday by the Jaguars at Art Wright Field. Emerald Ridge (19-5) tallied three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to get the West Central/Southwest District win.
Beamer couldn’t get anything going against Jaguar starter Kort Skoda, who allowed only five hits. Ben Arata finished 2 for 4 with a run and RBI for the Titans.
Emerald Ridge jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning, but Beamer tied it up with two runs of its own in the fourth. The Titans took the lead with a run in the top of the fifth.
The loss comes a day after the Titans tallied seven runs in the top of the first inning to beat Rogers, 15-10, in a loser-out district game at Puyallup’s Heritage Park.
Beamer, who finished fourth at the state tournament a year ago, got a huge, two-out, bases-loaded double by Lawyer Braun in the first inning to give the Titans the big lead.
Braun, Beamer’s leadoff hitter, finished 4 for 5 with three doubles, five RBIs and two runs scored.
Against Rogers, Beamer added five more runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a commanding 14-4 lead. But the Rams battled back to score six runs in the bottom of the inning to cut the Titans’ lead to 14-10. J.J. Asinas added an RBI single in the seventh for Beamer to finalize the score.
Jarred Prather finish 2 for 4 with a home run, two runs and three RBIs for the Titans. Scott Sunitsch picked up the win on the mound.
