Moses Lake, ACH baseball heads to state

COLUMBIA BASIN — After advancing through their respective district tournaments, both the Moses Lake Mavericks and Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors qualified for their respective State Baseball Tournaments. Read along for a look at upcoming matchups for both squads.

4A

After losing three straight games from April 19 to 23, Moses Lake (17-5) enters the 4A State Baseball Tournament riding a six-game win streak, with its most recent win coming against Eastmont in the Columbia Basin Big 9 district championship last Friday.

Moses Lake was given the No. 10 seed in the state playoffs, setting up a first-round matchup against No. 7 Camas at Heritage Park in Puyallup. The 16-8 Papermakers took fourth in last week’s 4A District 3/4 Tournament, defeating Sumner 5-4 in the first round before falling to Puyallup 9-0 in the semifinals and Tahoma 11-4 in the third/fourth-place game. 

First pitch between the Mavericks and Papermakers is at 1 p.m. Saturday. The winner moves on to play the winner of No. 2 Puyallup and No. 15 Newport, while the loser is eliminated from the tournament.

1B

The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors (19-2) earned a No. 3 seed in this year’s 1B State Baseball Tournament, earning a first-round bye in the process. ACH closed out the regular season with five consecutive wins, including a sweep of Northport in the regular season finale to win the Northeast 1B league championship.

The Warriors will play the No. 6 seed Mustangs once again, this time in the quarterfinals of the state tournament; both teams met in a May 4 doubleheader, with ACH winning both games by scores of 11-5 and 13-0. 

Northport defeated No. 11 Riverside Christian in the opening round Tuesday, earning a 13-3 win over the Crusaders.

First pitch between the Warriors and Mustangs is at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Wenatchee Recreation Park. The winner advances to play either No. 2 Naselle or No. 7 Orcas Island in the state semifinals at Johnson O’Brien Stadium at Ephrata High School next Friday, while the loser is eliminated.

MLCA/CCS earned the No. 12 seed in the 1B State Baseball Tournament, setting up an opening-round matchup on the road against No. 5 DeSales. The Lions fell 24-3 to the Irish on Tuesday, wrapping up their season with a state appearance.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

    No. 3 seed Almira/Coulee-Hartline takes on No. 11 Northport in the second round of the 1B State Baseball Tournament on Saturday. This is the third time the Warriors and Mustangs have met on the diamond this season.