Broncos fall victim to bit of Irish luck

YAKIMA – As DeSales raced home with the game-winning run, all nine Lind-Ritzville players collapsed on the rain-soaked County Stadium field.

In the process, the Broncos showed it wasn’t enough for them to almost beat the six-time defending champions.

They were two outs away, leading by a run in the bottom of the seventh before a DeSales rally ended in Jake Moore’s two-run, game-winning single and a 7-6 DeSales win in the State B championship game.

“That’s a hell of a run,” L-R head coach Jason Aldrich said. “I think the kids can hold their heads high. The kids played their hearts out, and we did everything we could possibly do.”

Nick Ashley, who had thrown two scoreless innings for the Broncos leading into the seventh, opened the final inning with a strikeout before walking leadoff batter Jack Dickson.

On the next play, Zac Ebding attempted to bunt for a hit, but L-R third baseman Zach Gardner scooped it up, and a good throw beat Ebding to first by a couple of steps.

But the first-base umpire ruled that Broncos first baseman Cameron Stevenson pulled his foot off the bag on the stretch.

A wild pitch and Moore’s single ended the Broncos’ season.

“It looked like (Ebding) was out from here and it wasn’t a bad throw,” Aldrich said. “I just thought (Stevenson) was bouncing off.”

To get to that point, L-R used a five-run fourth inning to build a three-run lead.

The inning started with DeSales starter Mike Richard, a highly touted junior lefty making his second start of the year after arm surgery, on the mound.

Richard struck out a batter, hit one and issued his fifth walk to Jacob Parkins, then came out after tweaking his arm.

From there, L-R (21-4) jumped on Dickson, DeSales’ relief pitcher.

After retiring the first batter, No. 9 hitter Nathan Bucher ripped an RBI single to left, followed by an RBI infield single from Darrin Eilbes.

Tyler Bruegemen hammered a double into left-center, scoring two. After an intentional walk to Nick Ashley, Travis Dewald singled in the final run of the inning for a 5-2 lead.

“It’s not just the Ashley, Dewald, Stevenson show,” Aldrich said of the Broncos, who got four RBIs from their Nos. 1, 2 and 6 hitters. “They’re obviously a big part of why we got to this point, but shoot, we’ve got 16 kids in the dugout that wanted to win the golden glove as well.”

Stevenson, the Broncos starter, allowed three runs in the bottom of the fourth to even it up, but got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam without allowing any more damage.

L-R took the lead in the top of the sixth on Gardner’s RBI single, and Ashley worked his way out of another bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the inning.

DeSales (22-4) won its 14th championship in 15 years, although Irish head coach Kim Cox couldn’t remember trailing so late in one.

“I felt so happy for our guys, you know, we’ve been through some stuff,” Cox said. “It was good to see. They’re just good people.”