TUMWATER — When Reid Christensen took over as the head coach of the Black Hills baseball team prior to this season, he instilled a set of goals for the Wolves to fight for. At the top of the list?
Break the “Black Hills slump.”
It had been eight long years since Black Hills last advanced to the district tournament. The 2026 campaign has been a tough one for Black Hills, but the Wolves did what they set out to do.
The slump has officially been broken.
Black Hills staved off a comeback from Centralia in the regular season finale and triumphed 10-6 to snag the fourth seed in the EvCo Thursday afternoon and secure a spot in the District 4 2A Tournament pigtail. The Wolves took a 10-2 lead and held on after Centralia scrapped to make it a four-run game late.
“It’s a pretty big deal. That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season. The seniors played a big part of it today,” Christensen said. “They’ve been through it more than anyone. It was big for them.”
A near three-hour contest began with Black Hills scoring the first run on Asher Straus’ RBI single, but Centralia starter Wyatt Van Der Hoeff left the bases stranded to keep the Wolves to just one run.
The story of the first half of the game for the Tigers was their difficulties with runners in scoring position. Caden Erickson’s leadoff double and Kadin Yeung’s walk to start the second were wasted in the second inning, and three singles with no one out in the third did not produce a run.
Lincoln Brannin drove in a run on a deep double over the left fielder’s head in the second inning, and a sacrifice fly by Cooper Parkinson made it 3-0 Wolves. Black Hills tacked on two more runs in the third, fueled by a leadoff triple by Jacob Tinsley and an RBI from Jacob Langan, who came around to score on a dropped third strike.
Trailing 5-0, Centralia loaded the bases again, this time with two outs. The Tigers finally delivered with runners in scoring position, as Hudson Waterfield doubled to right field to score two runs. But they once again left the bases loaded entering the bottom of the fourth inning.
Black Hills’ bats came alive in the fifth against reliever Yeung, drilling six singles in the inning to push five runs across home plate. Brannin and Brody Rice each contributed a two-run single in the frame as the Wolves’ lead jumped to eight.
With their postseason lives at stake, the Tigers rallied in the sixth inning. Jonah Lowe kicked off the comeback effort by reaching on an error, and Jake Johnson followed with a single. Waterfield came up clutch for Centralia again, dropping a double in the gap in right field to score a run. Black Hills struggled on the mound and behind the plate with the bases loaded, as a passed ball, a balk and a wild pitch resulted in three runs for the Tigers and capped off a four-run inning.
In the bottom of the sixth, Yeung worked around the leadoff batter reaching on an error and handed the game off to Centralia’s bats, hoping he’d see the mound again in the bottom of the seventh. As the Tigers took the field in the top of the seventh, someone from the dugout yelled “Everyone put your helmets on. We’re all batting.”
After a leadoff groundout, Gideon King earned an impressive walk after whiffing through the first two pitches he saw. Elijah Simpson replaced Tobias Hilden on the mound and struck out Lowe for the second out. Johnson singled to put two runners on with two outs, but Simpson struck out Waterfield to slam the door shut on Centralia’s comeback effort.
“We didn’t really have much of a choice there,” Christensen said of fending off Centralia. “When they scored four in the sixth inning, I told them, ‘Pump the brakes. Slow it down. Take a deep breath. Let’s just play baseball.’ Luckily, we were able to do that and get out of there.”
Black Hills was just as amped heading into the final three outs, if not more. In fact, Rice, a junior pitcher, noted that the Wolves played as a team more than they ever had this season to secure those last outs and get over the postseason hump.
“We were excited. We just wanted it. We wanted to prove everybody wrong,” Rice said. “And we wanted to prove a point against Centralia that we are for sure better.”
Rice said the biggest difference with this year’s squad is the desire to win and play for one another. The Wolves saw an increase in leadership from the upperclassmen this spring, he said.
“We wanted it more,” Rice said. “In the past couple of years, we’ve just been going through the motions. But this year, we’ve had leaders and people stepping up and holding everybody accountable to work our hardest every day.”
The road for a second straight district pigtail berth comes to an end for Centralia, which finishes the regular season with a 3-17 record and 2-13 mark in the EvCo. Centralia graduates six seniors: Kadin Yeung, Owen Sharp, Jonah Lowe, Hudson Waterfield, Jake Johnson and Rocco Waring. Centralia head coach Jake LeDuc credited his senior class, which were freshmen when he took over the program, for battling when it mattered most.
“It’s been the story of our season. We’ve had to battle every game. I’ll give [Black Hills] credit. They put balls in play when they had baserunners, but we battled our ass off,” LeDuc said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything more out of [the seniors]. They’ve gotten better every day and every year. They’re the last guys at practice. They’re picking each other up. They’re a great group.”
Black Hills (4-15, 2-13 EvCo) earns the fourth seed in the EvCo and will visit the GSHL’s fifth seed Washougal Saturday afternoon.
