Post by catsfan on Jun 7, 2012 0:53:24 GMT -5
What an incredible year for the baseball players and coaches of Colton High School. Winning a state title for the first time in over three decades is awesome. So proud of the Wildcats! Pat Doumit is the Coach of the Year!
Colton Tops ACH for State Title at Rotary
May 28, 2012, By Jon Guddat for the Daily Record News
As much as the coaching staff didn’t want to focus on the obvious, consider Colton’s victory a bit of payback for the past couple of years.
The Wildcats blitzed Almira/Coulee-Hartline for five runs in the first two innings and rode the cannon of Josh Straughan’s arm for an 11-1 victory in Saturday’s Class 1B baseball state championship game at Rotary Field, and the program’s first state title since 1980.
ACH is not new to Colton, having defeated the Wildcats in last year’s semifinals and the 2010 state final. The Warriors also bested the Wildcats in regional play this winter en route to the boys basketball state title, and in the 2011 third-place game.
“You couldn’t help but acknowledge it,” Colton head coach Pat Doumit admitted. “My worry was our guys were going to build this game up too much and turn ACH into this big monster. They didn’t, though.”
The Wildcats wasted no time putting runs on the board, taking advantage of three Warrior errors in the first inning. Austin Meyer got on base after an error and moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on Jake Straughan’s RBI single. Jake Straughan later went home on a bases-loaded balk, and Josh Straughan made it 3-0 on Justin Meyer’s single.
Dustin Devorak made it 4-0 when ACH pitcher Drew Isaak’s pickoff attempt to third base sailed high in the second inning. Minutes later, Jake Straughan came home on older brother Josh’s single.
As consistent as Josh Straughan was offensively, he was downright dominant on the mound.
The senior fanned 10 ACH batters and scattered just three hits — two in the first inning, when ACH left the bases loaded — in his complete-game win.
Straughan struck out Warrior Jake Johanson with the bases loaded in the first and struck out the side in the second inning as the Warriors couldn’t match Colton’s early offense.
“I told Josh, ‘This is your time,’” Doumit said. “All his pitches were working.”
However, while ACH couldn’t get things going offensively, Drew Isaak and team settled down to hold the Wildcats in check in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Isaak fanned two in the 1-2-3 third inning and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth when he forced a pop out from Jake Riedner.
But as much as ACH fought back defensively, miscues on the base paths — Derek Isaak was caught stealing in the third, and Jordan Ping was tagged out on a line drive in the fourth — and inconsistency at the plate kept the Warriors mired in a slump all game. The Warriors came into the contest having scored 34 runs in the previous two state playoff games, but only scored in this game when Derek Isaak opened the sixth with a triple and scored on Tucker Matthewson’s sacrifice.
Already up 7-1 at that point, Colton added more insurance, as the Wildcats roughed up Drew Isaak and reliever Ping for four more runs in the top of the seventh.
www.dailyrecordnews.com/sports/b-baseball-colton-tops-ach-for-state-title-at-rotary/article_fe42e3ac-a901-11e1-bb62-0019bb2963f4.html
Colton Tops ACH for State Title at Rotary
May 28, 2012, By Jon Guddat for the Daily Record News
As much as the coaching staff didn’t want to focus on the obvious, consider Colton’s victory a bit of payback for the past couple of years.
The Wildcats blitzed Almira/Coulee-Hartline for five runs in the first two innings and rode the cannon of Josh Straughan’s arm for an 11-1 victory in Saturday’s Class 1B baseball state championship game at Rotary Field, and the program’s first state title since 1980.
ACH is not new to Colton, having defeated the Wildcats in last year’s semifinals and the 2010 state final. The Warriors also bested the Wildcats in regional play this winter en route to the boys basketball state title, and in the 2011 third-place game.
“You couldn’t help but acknowledge it,” Colton head coach Pat Doumit admitted. “My worry was our guys were going to build this game up too much and turn ACH into this big monster. They didn’t, though.”
The Wildcats wasted no time putting runs on the board, taking advantage of three Warrior errors in the first inning. Austin Meyer got on base after an error and moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on Jake Straughan’s RBI single. Jake Straughan later went home on a bases-loaded balk, and Josh Straughan made it 3-0 on Justin Meyer’s single.
Dustin Devorak made it 4-0 when ACH pitcher Drew Isaak’s pickoff attempt to third base sailed high in the second inning. Minutes later, Jake Straughan came home on older brother Josh’s single.
As consistent as Josh Straughan was offensively, he was downright dominant on the mound.
The senior fanned 10 ACH batters and scattered just three hits — two in the first inning, when ACH left the bases loaded — in his complete-game win.
Straughan struck out Warrior Jake Johanson with the bases loaded in the first and struck out the side in the second inning as the Warriors couldn’t match Colton’s early offense.
“I told Josh, ‘This is your time,’” Doumit said. “All his pitches were working.”
However, while ACH couldn’t get things going offensively, Drew Isaak and team settled down to hold the Wildcats in check in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
Isaak fanned two in the 1-2-3 third inning and got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth when he forced a pop out from Jake Riedner.
But as much as ACH fought back defensively, miscues on the base paths — Derek Isaak was caught stealing in the third, and Jordan Ping was tagged out on a line drive in the fourth — and inconsistency at the plate kept the Warriors mired in a slump all game. The Warriors came into the contest having scored 34 runs in the previous two state playoff games, but only scored in this game when Derek Isaak opened the sixth with a triple and scored on Tucker Matthewson’s sacrifice.
Already up 7-1 at that point, Colton added more insurance, as the Wildcats roughed up Drew Isaak and reliever Ping for four more runs in the top of the seventh.
www.dailyrecordnews.com/sports/b-baseball-colton-tops-ach-for-state-title-at-rotary/article_fe42e3ac-a901-11e1-bb62-0019bb2963f4.html