With Mountlake Terrace’s Dominic DeMiero and the ace of the Columbia River (Vancouver) Chieftains Seth Rayburn taking the mound for their respective teams, the first round match-up of the WIAA 3A State Baseball Tournament between the Hawks and the Chieftains was expected to be a tense pitchers’ duel on Saturday. Expectations were certainly met.
In the end, it was Rayburn that had the upper hand as the Columbia River senior held the Hawks to just three hits and the Chieftains defeated Mountlake Terrace 3-0 at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.
The loss ends Terrace’s 2014 season; the team finished with a 13-11 record for the year.
The Chieftains produced all their runs in the third inning as they strung together four singles, then were aided by an outfield error committed by the Hawks. Those three runs were all that Rayburn needed, as the big right-hander struck out four to secure the shutout. Rayburn, who missed most of the 2013 season with an injury, improved his pitching record to 19-2 during his high school career.
DeMiero pitched heroically for Terrace, giving up only six hits and striking out five in the loss. The senior also had one of the team’s three hits; Wyatt Allemann and Ben Reijonen were the only other Hawks that could muster a hit against Rayburn.
Terrace did threaten a couple times to put runs on the board, but after getting two on base in the fourth inning, a couple of ground-outs ended the threat. Then in the seventh inning, the Hawks banged out two straight singles with one out, but a ground-out and a pop out put an end to the game and the MTHS season.
Columbia River went on to face O’Dea later in the day in second round state tourney action, but lost to the Fighting Irish 9-4 and was eliminated from the tournament.
MTHS Baseball vs. Columbia River, May 24 (first round of WIAA 3A State Baseball Tournament)
Mountlake Terrace 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 3 1
Columbia River 0 0 3 0 0 0 x — 3 6 2
Winning pitcher: Seth Rayburn (Columbia River)
Losing pitcher: Dominic DeMiero (Mountlake Terrace)
Runs batted in: Jace McKinney (Columbia River), Andrew Haley (Columbia River)
Records: Mountlake Terrace 13-11 (season ends); Columbia River 20-4