Bears place second to Tri-Cities Prep in state championship final

CENTRALIA – The league and district champion Brewster Bears varsity baseball team met a familiar adversary in the state championship game on Wheeler Field last Saturday, May 26. Contesting Brewster for the state crown was the team the Bears defeated in the District 5/6 playoffs in Wenatchee on May 12: Tri-Cities Prep from Pasco.
The always tough Jaguars had denied Brewster the District title last year and after losing to the Bears this year, battled through the state round of 16, Elite Eight and Final Four rivals to emerge as the one remaining obstacle to Brewster’s well-served championship. As it turned out, TCP again played the spoiler, avenging a 12-6 district loss with a 14-7 win for all the marbles at state.
“(The) last game didn’t quite go like we’d hoped obviously, but the kids still have a lot to be proud of,” said head coach Todd Phillips. “We accomplished a lot, met some of our goals.  Time for us to hit the weight room, get in the batting cage and have a good summer of baseball to prepare to take home the right trophy next season.”
Brewster defeated St. Georges, 5-3, in the round of 16 in Yakima, May 19, while TCP was dealing Liberty Bell at 12-1 loss. The Bears then blanked Asotin, 4-0, in Elite Eight play to make it into the Final Four on Friday, May 25. The Jaguars stopped Colfax, 5-1, to advance as well. At Centralia the Bears beat Adna, 7-1, while TCP dispatched Kalama, 11-6, to set the stage for the rematch.
Phillips, who was voted the Central Washington B-2B baseball Coach of the Year in a mid-May meeting of league coaches and athletic directors, said he was ”humbled to be voted as the coach of the year by peers, I am not sure if I deserved the reward this season, but I do feel that it is a team award.  I do not win it if it’s not for the players coming to practice every day and working to be better.”
The young Bears team will lose only one key player, senior Caiden Riggan.