No. 1 seed Selah sweeps Othello in final CWAC doubleheader
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello shortstop Camron Valdez fields a ball during the first game of Saturday's CWAC doubleheader with Selah. The top-seeded Vikings took two games from the Huskies.
Rodney Harwood/Columbia Basin HeraldOthello relief pitcher TJ Martinez delivers to the plate in the first game of Saturday's CWAC doubleheader with Selah.
OTHELLO — How do you keep the intensity level up all the way to the end? That’s the $64-dollar question, from the bigs to the Basin, and it’s a question first-year Othello head coach Sonny Garza needs to answer as his young Huskies head into the District 5-6 playoffs next week.
The Huskies (12-8, 10-8 CWAC) dropped a doubleheader to defending 2A state champion and No. 1 seed Selah on Saturday at Huskies Field.
Othello took a 3-1 lead on a two-out, 2-RBI single by Abel Gomez in the third inning of the opener. But the Vikings (18-2, 17-1) came back with the help of a solo home run by Carter Young to win 9-3. Selah used back-to-back doubles to score five runs in the top of the fifth to win the late game 9-2.
Ephrata (12-8, 10-1) split with Quincy (8-11, 9-9) on Saturday, so it will be another Othello-Ephrata match-up on Wednesday at Ephrata. No. 6 Quincy will face No. 3 East Valley in the first round.
“We have to find a way to stay up when you’re down and continue to ride that wave of energy we had early in the game,” Garza said. “When you’re playing good ball clubs, you’re not going to be winning every inning. We’re working on building that mentality, but it’s going to take time.”
Senior T.J. Martinez, who started at third base and did a little relief pitching in both games, agreed.
“It’s been that way all year. We have so much energy in the first couple of innings. It’s always at the fifth or sixth inning that we always give up. If one guy struggles, then we all struggle,” said Martinez, who is one of seven seniors who played their final home game. “It’s a team thing, when one of us starts hitting, we all start hitting.
“But playing for Othello means something to all of us. Even before Sonny Garza was our coach, I always looked up to this guy. I mean he was the third baseman of the century. He knows the game and he’s our leader. When I put the uniform on, I want to compete like those guys that came before me. It’s all a mentality of who you look up to and that’s what he’s trying to do here.”
Selah coach Mike Archer said he sees a difference in the Othello baseball culture and tips his had to the first-year Huskies skipper.
“I was really impressed with Othello today. They always have talented guys and Sonny has done a great job coaching them,” Archer said. “He’s got some arms out there. I really liked the first pitcher (Gomez). We didn’t start out very well and he had something to do with that.”
In the opener, Othello’s 3-1 lead carried into the sixth inning before Young, who also had a home run in the late game, stroked a bomb to left field to tie it up. Gomez respected the bat of Cort Dietrich, maybe a little too carefully, and eventually walked him. Waylon Pettijohn doubled and Carter Chapman lifted a sacrifice fly deep enough to score Dietrich to give the Vikings a 4-3 lead.
The wheels fell off in the top half of the seventh when Selah scored five runs on four hits to win a game that was much closer than the score indicated.
“We came out hard in that first game and just fell apart,” Gomez said. “I feel like when everybody is on their game and we’re talking we play really, really well. It means something to play for Othello. Everybody on this team knows that and we keep working to get better.”