BASEBALL: Kentwood clinches state berth

Just call him Alexander the Great.

Kentwood ace Alexander Lee was that good Saturday afternoon at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma.

The hard-throwing righthander allowed just two hits and struck out seven, leading the Conquerors past Olympia 5-0 in a winner-to-state West Central District baseball game.

“I was just trying to go out, throw strikes and make them get themselves out,” said the low-key Lee, who walked three. “I couldn’t really find my curveball, but I was locating my fastball pretty well. It gave me confidence out there to make them get themselves out.”

Kentwood will be making its fourth state trip in the last five years. The Conquerors (17-3) open the state tournament at 11 a.m. on Saturday (May 23) at Everett Memorial Stadium against Newport (14-9). Newport will be making its first state tournament appearance since 2006, when it won the Class 3A title.

Kentwood gave Lee all the runs he would need in the fifth inning, when Robbie Morris lined a single to center, scoring Jordan Bredengard from second base. Bredengard was running for catcher Taylor White, who led the inning off with a single to the right side.

In a game that was tied 0-0 through the first four innings and a combined total of just three hits between the teams, Morris’ single was pivotal.

“I wanted to break it open. It was kind of monotonous through those first five innings,” he said. “I just wanted to break it open and get some support for Alexander. One run is almost enough for him.”

But Saturday, Lee was in a groove. And that one run was, in fact, plenty good enough.

Olympia collected its first hit of the game in the second inning, a weakly hit single that squibbed between the mound and first base. The runner, however, was quickly erased when Kentwood’s White gunned him down trying to steal. It was the first of two runners White threw out on the day.

After that one single in the second, the Bears didn’t reach base via a hit again until the bottom of the seventh on a flare double down the right-field line.

“He didn’t pitch his best game. But not his best is still pretty dang good,” said Kentwood coach Jon Aarstad. “He’s still got room to improve.”

The Conquerors pushed their lead to 2-0 in the sixth, when Bryant VanEngelenburg led off with a single to left field. VanEngelenburg advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt, then came all the way home on a fly out to right field, a run that was keyed by a two-base error on Olympia right fielder Garrett Hall.

Kentwood sealed the game in the seventh, when Tony Reavis came off the bench and delivered a big two-run single to left field.

The state-clinching win was huge Morris said, especially after last year, when the Conquerors failed to qualify for the South Puget Sound League tournament.

“It puts us back. That was our motivation in the offseason, not making the playoffs,” he said. “We knew with the guys we had that we could make a run (at state). Now that everything is coming together, it’s really paying off.”