Bears win first District 6 baseball title since 2018

WENATCHEE –The Brewster varsity baseball team won its first District 6 title since 2018 with a 5-1 win over Liberty Bell at the Apple Bowl last Saturday, May 14. It was the seventh straight district title appearance for the Bears who missed the last two years due to the COVID pandemic.

“We’ve been lucky here and put ourselves into a good position moving into the playoffs,” said head coach Todd Phillips. “We left way too many runners on base and had a few poor approaches, but we will get that squared away.” 

AJ Woodward threw his fifth one-hitter of the year with 11 strikeouts. 

“We made him pitch a few too many pitches in a few innings, but we still limited Liberty Bell to only one unearned run,” said Phillips. “We left runners stranded in scoring position with less than two outs in every inning but the sixth.

Phillips said his team has to bring those runners home in the games ahead if they are going to stay out of trouble against the tough competition in the playoffs. The coach gave this inning-by-inning narrative of the game:

Scored four runs with two outs in the second inning.  Eric Ramirez led off with a walk, stole second, advanced on a Clayton Isensee ground-out and scored on a wild pitch.  Blake Burgett walked with two outs, Nico Maldonado was hit by a pitch, Reese Vassar walked, and Woodward brought two home with a base knock.  Vassar then scored on Tyson Schertenleib’s single. 

In the fourth, Liberty Bell scored the first run we have given up in the playoffs. Noah Holston was hit by a pitch with one out, Alumbaugh reached base on an error and a failed pick-off attempt brought Holston home.  We counteracted that run in the fourth when Schertenleib reached first on an error, stole second, moved to third on the Eric Ramirez sacrifice bunt and scored on the Grant Baker sacrifice fly.  Find out who and where we are going for the state playoffs tomorrow, should be an interesting bracket.   

Stats

                             1     2          3          4          5          6          7          R         H         E 

Liberty Bell    0          0          0          1          0          0          0          1          1          2 

Brewster         0          4          0          0          1          0          0          5          4          3 

W-AJ Woodward (7-1) 

L-D Alumbaugh 

S-None 

2B-Brewster: Reese Vassar (7); Liberty Bell: None 

3B-None 

HR-None 

Tigers fall in six

The Bears made quick work of their first district opponent last Thursday, May 12, when Brewster held visiting Tonasket scoreless through six innings of play for a 10-0 victory.

The Bears jumped on the Tigers early, said head coach Todd Phillips who reported the inning-by-inning action this way:

Scored three in the first inning, Nico Maldonado led off with a walk and stole second. AJ Woodward bunted for a base hit, Tyson Schertenleib walked, and Brady Wulf walked with the bases loaded to pick up the RBI. Eric Ramirez then doubled to plate two more.

In the second we doubled our lead. Blake Burgett led off with a walk and stole second. Maldonado singled him in advancing on the floor. Reese Vassar reached base on an error and stole second. Schertenleib singled to plate two more.

In the fourth Vassar led off with a single, stole second and scored on Schertenleib’s triple. 

In the fifth we pushed one across when Baker singled with one out, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Clay Isensee’s double. Put it to the ten-run limit in the sixth. Maldonado led off with a single, Vassar walked, Woodward doubled to plate Maldonado and Schertenleib singled to score Vassar. 

“We are one step closer to our goal and moving on to our seventh straight district championship game,” Phillips said.

Brewster faced Liberty Bell at Rec Park in Wenatchee at 3 p.m., Saturday, May 14for the district title. 

 Stats

                        1          2          3          4          5          6          R         H         E 

Tonasket         0          0          0          0          0          0          0          2          1 

Brewster         3          3          0          1          1          2          10        11        1 

W-Tyson Schertenleib (4-0) 

L-Isaiah Spangler 

S-None 

2B-Brewster: AJ Woodward (5), Eric Ramirez (6), Clay Isensee (3); Tonasket: Jake Terzi 

3B-Brewster: Tyson Schertenleib (2); Tonasket: None 

HR-None