The Olympia baseball team fell one win shy of a trip to Everett for the 4A state semifinals, losing to top-seeded Richland 11-1 in the state quarterfinals after beating ninth-seeded Woodinville 14-4 in the first round Saturday.
Everything was going wrong for the eighth-seeded Bears in the first three innings against Woodinville. The Falcons took an early 4-0 lead, and Olympia failed to score with the bases loaded in the first inning nor with two runners on in the second.
The Bears found life with two outs in the third, as Connor Hardy delivered a two-run double to cut the deficit in half. In the fourth, Olympia pummeled Woodinville with seven runs on four hits and three walks. Travis Kunkel tied the game with a two-run single before Sawyer Dean’s RBI single gave Oly a 5-4 lead.
Reliever Peyton Crass shut down Woodinville over 2.2 scoreless innings, and the Bears offense kept rolling with five runs in the fifth inning to enact the run rule. Hardy finished with five RBIs and two doubles in the win.
Olympia’s four-run comeback was the biggest of the season, and it set up a matchup with No. 1 seed Richland for a spot in the state semifinals next weekend.
Senior Brayden Cheeka led off the game with a single, but Bombers starting pitcher Braylon Edwards didn’t allow another hit until there were two outs in the top of the fifth inning. By that point, Richland had built an 8-0 lead after scoring three in the first inning and five in the third. The Bombers chased Oly starter Landyn Keister off the mound before he could get the first out of the third inning.
Cheeka, who was responsible for both of Olympia’s hits, drove in a run in the fifth on an RBI single. But the Bombers put the game away with a pair of runs in the fifth and the final dagger in the sixth.
Olympia finished the 2026 season with a 20-7 record and a 12-4 mark in the South Puget Sound League. The Bears won the SPSL title and earned a trip to the district semifinals.
“I could not be more proud of our boys, our seniors and our program. We fell short of our goals, but it certainly was not because of the will or want to of our group,” Olympia head coach Derek Weldon said. “Twenty wins, another quarterfinal appearance and many more accomplishments. I’m very grateful to the entire Olympia baseball community for another terrific season.”
Four All-SPSL players will move on from the program, including first-teamers Travis Kunkel and Brayden Cheeka, along with second-teamers Sawyer Dean and Milo Tolbert and Silas Sciba. First-team pitcher Peyton Crass and second-teamers Landyn Keister, Connor Hardy and Elijah Butler headline the roster in 2027.
