The Northwest Christian baseball team is making its triumphant return to the state tournament for the first time in a dozen years after blowing out Crosspoint Christian 12-2 in the District 1/2 1B Tournament semifinal Tuesday.
The Wolverines (12-5) are headed to the district title game to face Quilcene Thursday on their home turf at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey.
“Super, super proud of the effort today. The at bats were relentless, and the defense was lights out,” Northwest Christian head coach Jordan Potis said. “These guys deserve every bit of this.”
Northwest Christian jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning and led 9-1 after two. Jadon Dillingham and Kanakoa Paresa each recorded two-run singles in the first, and Paresa added another two-run single in the second.
The Wolverines scored one run in each of the next three innings to ignite the run rule, the first one handed to Crosspoint Christian this season. Parker Cox pitched all five innings and allowed just two runs on two hits, five walks and two strikeouts.
“Parker was aggressive in the zone and really put us in a great position to be in attack mode at the plate,” Potis said of Cox.
The last time Northwest Christian made it to a state tournament was in 2014 when the Wolverines were competing at the 2B level. They defeated Kittitas in the opening round before falling to DeSales in the quarterfinals.
