Baseball Begins on Saturday

For many teams, baseball begins in earnest this week with a number of scrimmages and jamborees taking place on Saturday (look for a detailed schedule late Friday night or early Saturday here on Southwest Preps).

Since three of the four 1A teams came from the Trico and Evergreen, we have to look there for a lot of the talent.

The Rockets Zach Gehring at home plate after his third home run against Ilwaco last spring (he hit five on the day). Gehring joins a number of veteran Rocket players on this year's Castle Rock Baseball team.

Kalama has several players returning from their state runner-up team. La Roy, Brandon Walker and Robbie Sanders (remember the latter two from basketball?)bring the Chinooks a lot of talent. Castle Rock also brings a tremendous edge that gives them possiby their best squad among the football, basketball and baseball programs. I watched Zach Gehring hit five home runs in a game last spring and while the solid play of Dustin Hamilton and pitching of Mike Murray begins to illustrate the team's talent, the depth is substantial.

Rochester graduated a significant number of athletes, but still need to be considered a threat in the Evergreen Conference.

Rochester's Roster

Kalama Shows Loggers the Door

When you are hot, you are just all that Kalama is now. After almost nipping powerhouse Winlock the Chinooks took care of Rainier and earned the right to face Onalaska, the number two seed from the Evergreen Conference.

Wearing the role of an underdog seems to suit the Chinooks as they defeated the Loggers 55-46 and qualified for the WIAA State Tournament in Yakima next week.

Onalaska came out hot with Ony’s Brady Stanley firing the opening salvo with a trey followed by a Jeff Swett bucket and two from Cody Nailon. Wham…Onalaska had a 9-0 lead half way through the first quarter.

A minute later, the Sanders and Walker show, Robbie Sanders and Brandon Walker to be more specific took the stage. Kalama, went on a 10-0 with the help of several Logger turnovers that allowed the Nooks to convert easy scores off transition. Walker scored 26 points while Walker added 22 in the entire game.

The two teams traded baskets in the 2nd quarter leading to a modest 28-27 advantage for Kalama.

Brandon Walker (#5) is pursued by Dustin Richey (#20) and challeneged by Eddie Miles (#22).

Kalama came out after half on a 7-0 run assisted by four missed shots and two turnovers by the Loggers. Ony Senior Eric Messal stopped the bleeding temporarily with five consecutive points, but the Nooks proceeded on a 11-2 scamper that lasted half way through the 4th quarter that broke the Logger’s back.

Early in the 3rd quarter, the quickness of Brandon Walker was on full display as he stole a pass and took it end to end for a lay-in. Seconds later after a missed shot, the Nooks broke a full court defense and scored another transition basket. Sanders athleticism was on display when he drove the length of the court, missed a contested lay-up, but retrieved his own rebound and scored without his feet ever hitting the ground.

Kalama's Matthew Pollock was a noticeable force as he gathered 11 rebounds to contribute to the winning cause.

Kalama big man Matt Pollock was a beast even with his modest 5 point scoring total. By evenings end, he had denied Onalaska, 11 rebounds.

The Loggers didn’t help themselves after shooting nearly 67 percent in the first half including 5-8 from three point range. In the second half, they felt the snow that would fall later as their shooting percentage fell to the low thirties and they went an abysmal 2-12 from behind the arc.

Kalama will play Ilwaco for the number 3 seed from District IV at 6:30pm at W.F. West High School in Chehalis.

LOGGERS (46)
Cody Naillon 12, Eddie Miles 8, Eric Messal 8, Dalton Richey 6, Jeff Swett 6, Brady Stanley 6, Nick Modica 0

CHINOOKS (55)
Brandon Walker 26, Robbie Sanders 22, Matthew Pollock 5, Jordan Wall 2, Ryan Chiodo 0, Jacob Neiman 0, Logan Nelson 0.

Onalaska 15 12 5 14 -46
Kalama 18 10 12 15-55

Winlock Passes the Kalama Test

It was test time for the Kalama Chinooks at the Southwest Washington 1A District Tournament at Castle Rock on Wednesday night. Could they apply what they learned in two previous meetings with powerful Winlock and play the role of spoiler?

Winlock was the winner of 61-30 and 59-45 contests in the home and home, pre-season series. Geography has a funny way of catching up to teams that think they have seen the last of each other.

This time, Kalama almost found the secret but fell just short as the Cardinals held on to a 31-28 first round victory.

The question is how do you prepare for a team that runs 6’5, 6’6” and 6’9” when your two giants are 6’4”?

Viggers didn’t notice anything different in Kalama from the two previous meetings back in December. “We watched film and didn’t notice any changes”, he noted before the game. Viggers was wrong and Kalama Coach Jody Stemkoski was playing coy.

Stemkoski had similar sentiments. “We already played them twice, we didn’t practice anything different”.

Kalama Guard Brandon Walker let out the secret after the game. “We wanted to control the tempo. Don’t let them have the ball," he shared. “They can’t score if they don’t have the ball. We needed to slow the game down and box out. Back in December, we were running all over the place.”

Kalama clearly struggled early with Winlock’s long arms and tall frames as they employed a 1-3-1 defense that resulted in several traps and turnovers as the Cardinals took an early 5-2 lead. The Chinooks however, found the three ball mid-way through the 1st . Brandon Walker hit two while Brandon Chiodo sank one early to score 9 of the Chinooks 11 1st quarter points.

After the flurry of threes by Kalama, Winlock employed quick 5’7” guard Nick Hoven to pressure the Chinook ball handlers and shooters in the front court. Kalama’s last three occurred just 1:23 into the second

“We had to do something,” contributed Viggers after the game. The strategy with Hoven was a success.

In the 3rd quarter, Brandon Walker continued dumping threes as he hit two more but 6’2” Winlock point guard Tyler Hertz found away to bite into the Chinook zone. With his play down low, Hertz maneuvered for a 6 points and forced a foul on Pollock. He finished the night with 10 points.

The 4th quarter featured more defense, a couple of turnover and missed shots before Pollock broke into the Cardinal zone and was fouled by the Cardinal’s Jordan Davis and earned an old fashioned three point play to tie the game at 28.

That was the last of the Kalama scoring.

“We rebounded fairly well and did a pretty good job of not giving them too many second opportunities, observed the Kalama Coach. “I told the kids if they hung in in the end and make the plays they needed to w would get the opportunity to make the play. We just happened to have a turnover.

“We had opportunities to win and we just have to regroup from here, added Stemkowski.

Winlock will now face a quick Stevenson team in the second round while Kalama will play Rainier in a loser-out game.

Cardinals 31, Chinooks 28
KALAMA ( 28) — Brandon Walker 12, Robby Sanders 4, Ryan Chiodo 3, Jordan Wall Matt Pollock 4, Brandon Osterlund, Logan Kallwick, William Colberg, Logan Nelson 5, Jacob Neiman, Jonathon Pittard, Austin Hauser
WINLOCK ( 31) — Nathan Booth 5, Jake Brown 13, Jordan Davi 3, Tyler Diamond Tyler Hertz 10, Mike Kent , Tyler McCarthy Angel Sanchez, Nick Hoven , Collin Kuppers, Bryson Coleman, Nick Hoven, Phillip Smerek,
Kalama 11 7 6 4— 31
Winlock 10 6 10 5—28