Baseball: Cruisers vs. West in regionals

Eatonville and W.F. West will square off this Saturday in the first round of the state 2A high school baseball regionals.

The winner in the contest that’s scheduled for 1 p.m. at Wheeler Field in Centralia will play a second-round game later that afternoon for the right to stay in the running for a berth in the state tournament. A loss at any point in the regionals ends that hope.

Eatonville is on a two-game losing streak after the West Central District playoffs. The Cruisers lost to Highline 2-1 on Saturday at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds, followed by a 10-0 setback against Fife. But they remained assured of one of the WCD's six berths in the regionals, however, thanks to their opening-round victory over Sequim the week before.

Against Highline, a late-innings comeback attempt by the Cruisers fell short. A.J. Goetz drove in Zach Smith in the sixth inning to cut Highline’s 2-0 lead in half, and Colin Streich gave his team a chance in the seventh inning when he singled with one out. But Eatonville couldn’t cash in.

Fife set the tone early with a two-run home run in the first inning to take a quick 2-0 lead, added a run in the next inning to increase the margin to 3-0, and then doubled it with three more runs in the fourth. A four-run in the sixth inning capped the Trojans’ victory.