ACH defeats Northport, reaches state semifinals

WENATCHEE — Runs were hard to come by in Saturday’s 1B State Baseball Tournament quarterfinal matchup between No. 3 seed Almira/Coulee-Hartline and No. 6 Northport, but the Warriors advanced to the state semifinals with a 1-0 win over the Mustangs.

Saturday’s matchup was the third time the Warriors faced Northport in two weeks.

“We’re always confident coming into games, but we knew we were facing a good team, and that’s exactly what we saw,” ACH head voach Hunter Lee said. “A 1-0 ball game, I’m glad that we came out on top. You’re always a little nervous going into playoffs, but it was good.”

The game’s lone run came in the bottom of the fourth inning when Warrior senior Jaxon Baergen sent home freshman Brody Pitts on an RBI double to give ACH the lead.

Baergen’s fingers were hit by a pitch earlier in the at-bat when the senior was attempting to lay down a bunt.

“I got the bunt sign, so I was ready to lay down the bunt,” Baergen said. “Then got hit, and thought, ‘Might as well’ — he’s probably thinking that I’m out, so I might as well go up and catch him by surprise. I didn’t go down defeated; I knew that probably would have been one of the last at-bats of my season if I didn’t do anything. Just made the most of it.”

ACH held the Mustangs scoreless for just the second time this season; Northport’s previous shutout was also against the Warriors, a 13-0 loss May 4.

Sophomore Caden Correia got the start on the mound and struck out 10 Mustang batters while surrendering one hit and three walks. Correia carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning.

“I felt some control until the end,” Correia said. “I fell apart a little bit at the start — I was nervous up there, but (I was) getting by people. Great plays by Carter Pitts there at shortstop got me to the end.”

On the other side of Saturday’s pitcher’s duel, Northport junior Dawson Baribault had 10 strikeouts, one walk and three hits surrendered.

“He’s been pitching since he was a freshman, so this is the third year that we’ve faced him,” Lee said. “We’ve had plenty of at-bats against him, and we felt good about being able to see him during the regular season. He threw really well today – really efficient, really good — but we just happened to get a few more hits than they did.”

With hits hard to come by, the Warriors had to capitalize when they were able to get on base.

“It’s just executing,” Lee said. “We tried to bunt a little bit, it didn’t go as well as we would’ve liked with bunting, but guys came up big in big spots.”

Correia’s no-hitter bid ended in the top of the seventh inning when Northport eighth grader Cameron Mawdsley singled in the second at-bat of the inning; Mustang sophomore Dalen Benjamin reached on an error the next play, giving Northport two runners on base with just one out on the board.

After taking a moment to relax, Correia ended the game with back-to-back strikeouts.

“God gave us this game to play, to have fun, so it’s like, ‘Just take a breath,’” Correia said. “‘You’ve just got to go out there and throw.’”

Saturday’s game was hosted at Recreation Park in Wenatchee, which has a turf infield; Lee said it wasn’t a drastic change for the Warriors, as many on the team also play summer ball on a turf infield in Spokane.

“The ball’s a little bit quicker, but I think it’s easier, personally, because you get clean bounces and don’t have to worry about bad hops,” Lee said. “We’re familiar with it too – our summer Legion team that a lot of these guys play on, we play at (Shadle Park High School) in Spokane, and it’s an all-turf infield just like this. We’ve been here before in big games and played on this type of surface, so we felt pretty good about it as well.”

With the win, ACH heads to the state semifinals in a matchup against a familiar opponent, the back-to-back state champion Naselle Comets; Naselle has knocked the Warriors out of the previous two state baseball tournaments – a 15-10 win over ACH in the semifinals in 2022, and a 5-3 win in the quarterfinals last season.

“The past two years – my eighth grade and my freshman year – we came up short in the first weekend of playoffs, so it’s good to finally get past it and get to the final four,” Correia said. 

The Comets and Warriors will meet on Friday at Johnson-O’Brien Stadium at Ephrata High School, just over half an hour from Coulee City. 

“It’ll be nice, we’ll have great fan support and get to sleep in our own beds,” Lee said. “I’m excited about not having to worry about curfews. It’ll be good for us to be able to sleep in our own beds, and we also played there last year. We’ve been there, so we feel good about it.”

First pitch between ACH and Naselle is at 4 p.m. in Ephrata. The winner advances to the state championship game Saturday at 7 p.m., while the loser plays in the third/fourth-place game at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“I was hurt when we made it to the (2021) championship in football and did all these things in sports, but being a part of it is just surreal,” Baergen said. “We’re guaranteed to play two more games, top four in the state — it’s just an amazing feeling.”

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

Box score

NPT: 0-0-0-0-0-0-0 0

ACH: 0-0-0-1-0-0-X 1

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline senior Jaxon Baergen delivered Saturday’s lone run of the game, an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth inning against Northport.
  

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline freshman Brody Pitts dashes to home plate to score a run in the bottom of the fourth inning against Northport on Saturday.
  

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline senior John Pierce (21) catches a pick-off attempt at first base on Saturday against Northport.