The Kentwood High baseball team didn\u2019t have the offense Saturday to give it the defense it had been hoping for all season long.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Seeking to defend its state title from a year ago, the Conquerors were derailed by Redmond flamethrower Dylan Davis and the Mustangs 6-0 in a Class 4A state quarterfinal game at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Davis, who was dialing up his fastball into the high 80s and low 90s all afternoon long, allowed just four hits and struck out seven in a complete-game effort. Davis, who will play at powerhouse Oregon State next year and was ranked by Baseball America<\/em> among the top prep players in the nation, got stronger as the game progressed, too. Six of his seven strikeouts came in the final three innings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve seen (Davis) throw before. That\u2019s the best I\u2019ve seen him,\u201d said Kentwood coach Jon Aarstad. \u201cHe came out and commanded the zone, pounded it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kentwood second baseman J.T. Evenson, who was unable to muster anything against Davis in three at-bats, agreed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cHe throws hard,\u201d Evenson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to tip our caps to him. We had the ability. We had the talent. We just didn\u2019t get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Conquerors (19-7) were making their seventh state appearance in the last eight years. Last year\u2019s state championship was the Kentwood\u2019s first since 2000. The Conks were hoping to defend their title, albeit with an almost entirely new roster. Evenson and No. 4 hitter Cash McGuire were the only two players on this year\u2019s roster who saw significant time last season. In addition, ace Avery Kain, who also was the team\u2019s top hitter during its title run a year ago, was lost early in the season due to a leg injury.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Despite overhauling the roster, Aarstad does not feel the Conquerors exceeded expectations this fall.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cNot too many teams lose their best pitcher and best hitter and win a district title,\u201d Aarstad said. \u201cOverachieving? No. I don\u2019t think so. We expected to get back here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n First baseman Zach Abbruzza gave Davis and the Mustangs all the runs they would need in the top of the first inning, launching a home run to left field that was high as it was far off of Kentwood starter Kyle Green, giving Redmond an immediate 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Mustangs (20-7) added single runs in the third and fourth innings before breaking the game open with a three-run sixth that was aided by three Kentwood errors.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The win gives Redmond a berth into next Friday\u2019s semifinal round, where they will face top-ranked Jackson at 4 p.m. at Cheney Stadium.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kentwood advanced to play Redmond in the Elite Eight thanks to a complete-game gem by ace lefthander Kyle Doyle in a 5-0 victory over Gig Harbor. Doyle allowed just three hits, walked five and struck out 11, one off of his season high.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThat was probably the best I\u2019ve thrown all year,\u201d said Doyle, who will play at Seattle University next year on scholarship. \u201cI was going to my curveball a lot. Today, that was my go-to pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kentwood sputtered offensively much of the time against Gig Harbor. Catcher Reese McGuire gave Doyle all the offense he would need in the third inning with a check-swing single to center field that scored Skyler Genger from third. Genger reached on an error. The Conquerors broke the game open with a 4-run sixth inning. Reese McGuire and older brother Cash both delivered hits in the rally. Taylor Jones added an RBI single as did Lucas Gately.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Offensively, however, the Conquerors were unable to muster much the entire day. Against Gig Harbor, Kentwood managed just six hits. In the two games combined, Gately went 4-for-6 with 1 RBI, 1 run scored and a stolen base. Reese McGuire, who was named the MVP of the South Puget Sound League North Division as a sophomore, added three hits in five at-bats, and was hit by a pitch.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Despite missing their ultimate goal, Aarstad remained pleased with how the Conquerors played throughout the season, particularly toward the end.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Avery went down, everybody stepped up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Kentwood High baseball team didn\u2019t have the offense Saturday to give it the defense it had been hoping for all season long.<\/p>\n Seeking to defend its state title from a year ago, the Conquerors were derailed by Redmond flamethrower Dylan Davis and the Mustangs 6-0 in a Class 4A state quarterfinal game at Heidelberg Park in Tacoma.<\/p>\n Davis, who was dialing up his fastball into the high 80s and low 90s all afternoon long, allowed just four hits and struck out seven in a complete-game effort. Davis, who will play at powerhouse Oregon State next year and was ranked by Baseball America among the top prep players in the nation, got stronger as the game progressed, too. Six of his seven strikeouts came in the final three innings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":4362,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-4361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4361"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=4361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}