ACH Warriors reflect on another successful season

COULEE CITY — The Almira/Coulee-Hartline Warriors concluded the 2026 baseball season with a 15-8 overall record and went 8-1 in league. Despite a postseason run that ended earlier than expected, there was still a lot that the Warriors were proud of this year.

“Overall, it was a good season,” said Head Coach Hunter Lee. “It was challenging at times but also had a lot of good moments as well.”

The Warriors went into the regular season with a tough schedule ahead of them as they prepared to face 12 non-conference opponents who were all from higher-classification schools. 

“Being able to see some really high-level teams and some high-level pitching specifically, it’s just something we don’t see a whole lot in our league,” said Lee. “To be able to go out and pick up games like that where we see some guys on the mound and high-level teams, it helped us out a ton.”

One of the most notable non-conference matchups came early in the season against a formidable Royal Knights team. This doubleheader was close, but the Warriors came out ahead in both to win 9-3 and 10-7.

By the end of the season, the Warriors had gone 6-6 against these larger non-conference opponents.

“It was a lot of fun to challenge ourselves and I’m proud of the way the boys competed in all those games,” said the coach. “I was very happy with their scheduling this year and it was fun to test ourselves for sure.”

The Warriors entered the postseason and claimed a 10-0 win in the league tournament against Oroville, becoming the league champs. With this win the Warriors made their way into the District 5/6 crossover.

Upon entering the crossover for their first games of the postseason, the Warriors were the first seed for District 6. This put them up against District 5’s No. 1 seed, Liberty Christian, to decide seeding for the state tournament.

The two No. 1 seeds had a close matchup, but ultimately Liberty Christian claimed a 4-3 victory and ACH took second in the district crossover. Even with the loss, the Warriors had already punched their ticket into the state tournament as the third seed.

ACH had a bye going into state, which placed them into the quarterfinals against the 11th-seeded DeSales. Despite gaining an early lead, DeSales made a comeback in the fifth inning and won 11-8 to end the Warriors’ postseason run.

“Obviously it didn’t go how we wanted at the end, but we played a really tough schedule and I was really proud of the boys for how they responded to things and their effort of the whole season,” said Lee.

Even though the Warriors didn’t earn athletic honors at the end of the 2026 season, the team did earn the title of Academic State Champs. This award means the ACH boys did a full sweep for Academic State Champs, as they won it in football, basketball, wrestling and now baseball.

“To win the academic (state championship) is something that we’re proud of,” said Lee. “We really pride ourselves in not only being good athletes but being good students and then just good members of the community as well.”

The coach said this season was a great learning experience for the five freshman players on the team. These players specifically gained valuable experience from the tough non-conference games throughout the season.

The Warriors are losing a strong group of seniors in the offseason as Harvest Parrish, Caden Correia, Luke Goetz, Josh Booker and Evan Tipps graduate this week. All these players were valuable members of the team throughout their careers and grew along with the team over the years.

Correia was notably named the league MVP for the last two years and has been playing for ACH since eighth grade. Booker made the all-league team at the end of his senior season for his success as a first baseman.

“All our seniors are going to be missed,” said Lee. “They did a lot for this program and all of them just really led by example for our younger guys.”

As the Warriors look ahead to next season, they will be returning a strong and experienced group of juniors and freshmen to the roster along with adding some strong eighth graders. With this group, the coach expects the team to be right back in the mix for postseason contention next year.

“It’s our responsibility now to pick up where these seniors left off and just continue what we do here, and that's win,” he said.

While the ACH Warriors season is over, many of the players will continue playing baseball over the summer with the ACH Diamond Ducks under Lee’s coaching. The Ducks’ first game is a home doubleheader set for June 7, with the first game starting at 1 p.m.

    Josh Booker, a senior from the Warriors, looks to tag out an Okanogan runner early in the spring season.
  

    ACH senior Harvest Parrish steps up to bat against Okanogan in a home game early in the season.
  

    Warriors senior Caden Correia prepares to sling a pitch at the opposing batter during a game early in the 2026 season.
  

    Haydon Boyd, a freshman from ACH, rushes to first base after making a hit against Odessa in early May.
  

    Max Grindy, a junior from the Warriors, steps up to the plate in a later-season game against Odessa.