BELLEVUE — Walla Walla Community College’s baseball team picked up a pair of NWAC Super Regional victories on Friday, 6-2 over Centralia and 11-7 over Bellevue, to advance to again play Bellevue on Saturday.
On Saturday afternoon, Bellevue, with a run in the bottom of the eighth, pulled out a 3-2 victory over the Warriors.
With the win, Bellevue forced a loser-out battle with the Warriors on Sunday morning, with WWCC winning 12-9 to advance to the NWAC tournament, and end the Bulldogs’ season.
“I’m so proud of these guys for competing and fighting the way that they did,” Warriors coach Davd Meliah said. “There wasn’t one guy on this team who didn’t believe that we weren’t going to come back and win that game.
“This is a great group of young men, and I’m excited that we get to spend another week together and continue to work as hard as we can.”
On Sunday, the Bulldogs opened a quick 7-0 lead after two innings, only to watch the Warriors score a lone third-inning run, three in the fourth, fourth in the fifth and three more in the sixth to combat Bellevue’s single runs in the fourth and fifth to hold a 11-9 lead.
A ninth-inning insurance run left the final score at 12-9.
Sean Coffey had three of WWCC’s 11 hits in the game, while Colton Peha had home run.
Now, the Warriors head to the NWAC Baseball Championship in Longview, Wash., on Thursday. They open against Linn-Benton at 12:35 p.m. at Story Field.
The championships run through Monday.
On Friday against Centralia, Josh Kutzke had four hits and Brandon Wagstaff three as the Warriors scored single runs in the second, third and fifth innings to take a 3-1 lead. They then answered Centralia’s seventh-inning run with two of their own, and capped it with a run in the eighth.
In the second game Friday, WWCC racked up 17 hits to Bellevue’s 14 in the 11-7 win.
Sean Coffey led the Warriors with four hits in the game.
The Bulldogs opened a 3-0 lead after three innings, but WWCC clawed back into it with runs in the fourth and fifth, and three in the sixth, and the teams were tied at 5-apiece before the Warriors erupted for six seventh-inning runs.
Two Bellevue runs in the ninth weren’t enough to prevent the Warriors from advancing.
The Bulldogs fell into the loser’s bracket, but defeated Centralia 13-3 earlier on Saturday to again face WWCC later Saturday afternoon.
In the Bellevue Saturday loss, the Warriors overcame a 2-0 deficit with a run in the sixth and one in the seventh. Wagstaff singled to open the Warrior sixth and eventually scored on a wild pitch. A lead off walk to Larry DeWitt opened the Warrior seventh. DeWitt eventually came around to score on a Bellevue error to tie the game at 2-2.
Bellevue got the game winner in the home eighth. Austin Shenton delivered a 2-out RBI single to give Bellevue a 3-2 lead and Bellevue hung on for the win.
