Tahoma’s offense backs up Matt Lewis’ strong start as Bears claim 4A/3A NPSL crown
It wasn’t the 2021 baseball season the Tahoma High School Bears had envisioned. But in the end, events coalesced to create a finish to remember.
First, Tahoma won the Class 4A North Puget Sound League title. Then on Saturday afternoon, before a home crowd, the Bears added the league’s overall championship with a 5-1 crossover victory over the 3A titlists from Kentlake.
The year, like all sports in high school this winter and spring, was truncated by the COVID-19 pandemic. No state playoffs awaited at the end of a shortened season.
Just the one-game crossover on Saturday for the 4A/3A NPSL crown, a game that may have concluded the 29-year coaching career for Tahoma head man Russ Hayden. He and his coaching staff, along with the Tahoma administration, haven’t come to any finality yet.
“I’m not sure if it’s my last game as a coach or not,” Hayden said. “I retired from teaching two years ago. But if it is, it’s a nice way to end it. There are a lot of people who want this position, I think. I might like to come back, though, for that 30th year. It’s a nice round number.”
For certain, Saturday was senior pitcher Matt Lewis’s final time on the hill for Tahoma. And Lewis turned in a stellar effort to lead the way against the Falcons.
“I’ve been throwing good all season,” said Lewis, who acknowledged that he knew well many of the Kentlake players. “So it was fun to get after it against some old friends.”
Lewis tossed five innings of four-hit baseball at Kentlake before giving way to reliever Jackson Warner after walking the leadoff man in the sixth.
The Falcons actually did take the initial lead on Lewis and Tahoma after a soft single from Evan Williamson with one out in the first inning. Williamson stole second, then stole third as he broke from the bag before Lewis spiked a pitch that went to the backstop, saving the Bears starter a wild pitch.
Two pitches later, Lewis did throw a wild pitch and Williamson raced home with a head-first diving slide into the plate for a 1-0 Falcons lead.
Tahoma erased the deficit in the bottom of the second.
Logan Pierce singled and was replaced by pinch runner Zackary Owens. Cody Monaghan walked, then both runners advanced to second and third with one out on a wild pitch by Kentlake starter Ethan Loghry.
Owens beat a play at the plate on a come-backer to Loghry by Chris Wagner to tie it at 1-1, then Monaghan put the Bears in front for good when he beat a throw home on a groundout to shortstop.
The 2-1 advantage turned out to be all Lewis and two relievers really needed, though Tahoma added two more in the fourth and another in the fifth.
“We just couldn’t bunch enough hits to put up the big numbers,” Hayden said. “But, our pitching has been so good all season. We’ve thrown seven shutouts in 15 games. I don’t think I’ve ever had that many happen in 29 years.”
And while Saturday wasn’t the eighth shutout, the pitching again carried the Bears.
“He wanted the ball,” Hayden said. “So, we didn’t throw him at all this past week. It’s your senior. You kind of want to give those seniors their last opportunities.”
For Lewis, there also was the chance to face the Falcons with a little redemption in the air.
Back at the beginning of the season, during the league jamboree, Lewis threw against the Falcons and didn’t fare nearly as well. Pitching for the first time in two years on the Tahoma mound, he had trouble finding the strike zone and Hayden said his pitcher failed to get out of the first inning that day.
“Maybe there was a little bit of revenge in there,” Lewis admitted on Saturday.
That, and the chance for at least some kind of title.
“It wasn’t like we had a (state) championship to compete for this season,” Lewis said. “But I think everyone was stoked for the season we did get.”