Auburn defeats Peninsula in 3A district championship game, 3-1

Two teams on similar missions of legacy collided at Auburn High on Saturday night.

The District 3/4 baseball championship game was simply the next step for the Peninsula Seahawks and the Auburn Trojans, playing what could be the first of two titanic clashes between these programs in the next three weeks.

Give the first round to NPSL champ Auburn, which beat the Seahawks 3-1 on its home field for the district title. Both teams advance to the regionals next weekend, where they will not be paired at the same site.

Both still could advance to the state tournament final four on May 27-28, where they could meet again for the final prize: a state title.

“It’s a step,” Auburn coach Gordie Elliott said. “But we’ve got some more steps to take. Our goal is to win the state championship and only one team gets to do that. We’ve got more steps to take to be that team.”

Peninsula dedicated this season to former star Caleb Wanaka, who would have been a senior on this squad had he not been killed last summer in a traffic accident. The Trojans want to continue the same march their boys basketball brethren made in March, and finish the year off with yet another state championship trophy for the Bob Jones Gymnnasium trophy case.

Both teams had a relatively easy time reaching the final game on Saturday.

Auburn hit three home runs and Colton Anardi threw a complete game to beat Bainbridge, 6-2, in the first semifinal of the day. Peninsula followed with a 5-2 victory over Silas in the second semi, erupting for four runs in the third inning and cruising home behind Gavin Sheets, who also threw a complete game, against the Rams.

That set up the NPSL vs. South Sound Conference champions against each other for the bi-district crown.

It didn’t take long to get the scoring started. Anardi, in the lineup as the designated hitter after his semifinal pitching victory, hammered the second pitch he saw leading off the top of the second inning into the netting above the left-field wall for a solo home run and a quick 1-0 lead.

“Felt good,” Anardi said. “You always want to score first, get the momentum going. We got it going and it stayed there the rest of the game.”

Auburn (20-5) built on the advantage in the third, getting a leadoff double from catcher Brandon Zadow, then taking advantage of two walks and two wild pitches from Peninsula starter Hunter Bennett to score another pair of runs and extend the lead to 3-0.

That was all Amari Goodfellow needed. The junior eclipsed his previous longest outing of the season of 6.1 innings, established just a couple of weeks ago, by throwing a complete game at the Seahawks (16-7).

“I was just pumped,” Goodfellow said. “You know, it’s the first time we’ve been in the playoffs in a while and I was ready to go. I was ready to compete.”

Goodfellow hit one of the three home runs the Trojans tallied in their semifinal win over Bainbridge while playing his regular center field spot during that game. The four homers for the day tied the total number Auburn had hit on their home field all season long.

“The ball just hadn’t been carrying, the air’s been so cold,” Elliott said. “Then all of a sudden we hit four today. The air’s starting to warm up, so that’s good.”

The Seahawks got their one run back in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to Payton Knowles’ leadoff single, stolen base, advancing to third on a ground out and a two-out error that allowed Reece Brown to reach first safely and Knowles to score.

Peninsula then put the first two runners on base in the fifth, and sent Ben King to the plate. King grounded the ball to third, where it was fielded and thrown to second for the first out.

Justin Grande, the runner coming into second from first, briefly slid but popped up right in the line of a potential throw for a double play. Even with no throw, the umpire at second immediately signaled interference on Grande, awarded the double play and brought Landon Pate, who had advanced to third on the plate, back to second effectively ending any rally.

“There wasn’t anything that I can say that we didn’t do well,” Peninsula coach Michael Johnson said. “It’s just baseball. Sometimes the ball falls your way, sometimes it doesn’t. There’s really nothing we could have done different.”