NAPAVINE — Through three innings in Napavine, it seems that Rainier was going to cruise past Raymond/South Bend and advance to the district quarterfinals.
Three innings later, entering the seventh, the Mountaineers no longer had a comfortable lead, but they still led by three and were three outs away from moving on.
Moments later, they could only watch as they left the field, when the winning run for Raymond/South Bend trotted home after a walk-off walk.
“It’s very disappointing,” Rainier coach Justin Gurnsey said.
Once up eight runs, Rainier’s season came to an end with a 10-9 loss in the first round of the 2B District 4 Tournament. A win would have guaranteed the Mountaineers at least two more games, but instead, their season is over.
“We feel like we still have good baseball to play,” Gurnsey said. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort, and in most cases, it wasn’t for a lack of skill. Sometimes the ball just drops where the ball drops.”
In the first three innings, the Rainier offense was humming.
The Mountaineers scored two runs in the opening frame on two groundouts, and Kaden Goodman hit an RBI triple to make it 3-0 in the second. An error and a Wyatt McIntyre RBI single later in the second inning made it 5-0.
In the third, Goodman hit a two-run single, and Yazama Gurnsey drove him in with an RBI triple of his own to put the Mountaineers up eight.
“They were aggressive, they were making really good swings, we were making solid contact, and we were running the bases,” Justin Gurnsey said. “That is what we do. This whole season, when we’re at our best, we’re making solid contact and running the bases well.”
Just as the thought of the run-rule started to enter fans’ minds, the Ravens scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth.
Initially, it looked like nothing more than a solid offensive frame to help extend the game, but it ended up being the spark that the RSB dugout needed.
The Ravens began hitting the ball hard all over the yard, and they scored three more runs in the fifth to get within two.
“We started off really strong, and then just lost a little bit of focus,” Justin Gurnsey said. “A lot of it is that your energy equates to runs. If we keep our energy up, we’re gonna score runs, and if we keep our energy up, we’re gonna prevent runs. Sometimes that’s hard to do when you build a lead and start to get complacent. And once you let down a little bit, it's hard to build it back up.”
Goodman helped bring it back up briefly in the sixth, hitting his second triple before scoring on an RBI groundout from Wyatt McIntyre to make it 9-6.
That scoreline held until the bottom of the seventh, when the first two Ravens to come to the plate reached base. A sacrifice fly made it 9-7, a double put runners on second and third, and another double down the left-field line tied the game at nine.
Three walks later, the winning run got to jog home.
Goodman finished 3 for 3 with his two triples and three runs batted in, while McIntyre finished with a hit and two RBIs. Wyatt Cughan had a multi-hit game and stole a base, and Yazama Gurnsey drove in a run and scored twice.
The Mountaineers finish their season 9-12 and will graduate four seniors: Goodman, Nathaniel Maggard, Cooper Lantz, and Andrew Cardey.
“Best attitudes I’ve ever seen,” Justin Gurnsey said. “We’re gonna miss those four because they are such characters and they’ve been with us for years … It’s gonna hurt, but you grow. That’s baseball.”
And even with the heartbreak of the loss still fresh, Justin Gurnsey couldn’t help but get fired up when thinking about next spring.
“I love my team,” he said. “They’re gonna be good. As sad as I am to see our seniors go, this team has so much talent. I’m expecting big things from us.”
