Snohomish, Shorewood earn state baseball tourney berths

WOODINVILLE — Everyone at Woodinville High School on Saturday knew Deyton Wheat mashed a home run as soon as the ball left the bat.

With two runners on for Snohomish baseball, trailing 2-1 in the fourth inning against Monroe in a District 1 3A consolation game, Wheat launched a ball into orbit over the left field fence for a go-ahead, three-run homer to take a 4-2 lead.

The Panthers (16-8) would hold that score to punch their ticket to the state tournament, stealing the spot from the Bearcats (9-14).

“All the guys did their job,” Snohomish pitcher Luke Davis said. “That’s the quote before the game: ‘Do your job.’ Go out on the field, do your job, get it done.”

Davis certainly did his job, allowing eight hits and striking out five in a complete-game win. He secured the victory by stranding the tying run at first base in the seventh. Calm under pressure, this wasn’t the junior’s first rodeo.

The same can’t be said about Wheat, however.The sophomore sent his team to state in his first varsity game.

It’s a scenario Wheat (1-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI) never could have imagined entering the season.

“This came out of the blue,” Wheat said. “Just really happy I was given the opportunity. Played JV all year, and got the call for playoffs. And I want to thank Luke Davis, because he’s the one who held the whole game.”

So with that kind of power and big-play ability, what took his promotion so long?

“It’s on me, right? It took so long,” Snohomish coach Nick Hammons said, jokingly. “But yeah, when he finally got the call, he delivered. Difference in the ball game was his home run. Pretty cool moment for that kid.”

After spending two weeks on varsity since his call-up, Wheat drew attention from the coaching staff by crushing baseballs during practice. After discussing his inclusion in the lineup for the past week, Hammons finally locked it in the night before the game. It proved to be the right choice.

Monroe jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth when Cody Walker (2-for-3, 2 RBI) hit a 2-RBI triple to deep center field, but Snohomish later picked him off at third base to end the inning.

The Panthers loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame with a pair of singles and a hit by pitch, and Enzo Porletto (0-for-1, 1 RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to right field to cut it to 2-1.

Then Wheat took the lead.

“Deyton Wheat, sophomore, coming in, first game on varsity ever, hitting a bomb to pretty much save us right there,” Davis said. “So it was pretty hype in the dugout. Everybody’s just got to get up, get going, get on the pitcher. That’s pretty much the mentality.”

Davis allowed just two batters to reach base between the fifth and sixth innings. He recovered from allowing back-to-back singles from Monroe to lead off the seventh, and retired the top of the Bearcats order to send Snohomish to the state tournament.

“We’ve (overcome) adversity our whole careers,” senior Jordan Rude said. “We’ve always been underdogs, so to kind of come over the hump and go to state, I think we’ll be doubted, but I think we can make a deep run.”

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Shorewood 7, Edmonds-Woodway 0

Joey Facilla allowed five hits and two walks while striking out three in six shutout innings, and drove in three runs at the plate to help Shorewood (15-8) punch a ticket to the state tournament over Edmonds-Woodway (16-8).

The Stormrays wasted no time, loading the bases on three straight walks to open the game. Facilla (1-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI) hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Lorenzo Jaramillo (1-for-2, 3 R), then Kanata Barber (1-for-2, 2 R) scored on a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead.

Before Facilla even took the mound, he had the upper hand.

“It’s nice, I mean, I get to start out with the lead,” Facilla said. “Last two games, as we said, we didn’t put a lot of runs up. So I mean, today the boys come out, put up two runs early. We’re putting up good at-bats against their guy, and it just allows me to go ease up on the mound and go do my thing.”

After stranding a runner in each of the first two innings, Facilla gave himself even more run support in the top of the third with a 2-RBI single to center, and the Stormrays never looked back. After Danny Morgan (2-for-4, RBI) hit an RBI double two batters later to make it 5-0, Facilla struck out two batters to retire the side in the bottom of the frame.

“If you throw strikes at 85 percent like he did, and your fastball is working, you don’t need every pitch,” Shorewood coach Ben Andrews said. “You just got to be competitive, and that’s what he does day in and day out. Nothing new.”

Warriors relief pitcher Isak Haverlock (4.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 2 K) started to hold Shorewood at bay, but the Stormrays defense did its part to stay ahead.

With runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth, Edmonds-Woodway pitcher/outfielder Lukas Wanke (2.2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 2 K; 0-for-3) ripped a line drive towards left field, but Jaramillo leapt into the air and caught the ball over his head to get the out and prevent the runners from advancing.

“I knew the ball might have been coming to me because (Facilla) was throwing a couple off-speed (pitches), so I anticipated the ball coming to me,” Jaramillo said. “And then as soon as I saw it off the bat, I knew I had a chance, and I reached up and snagged it.”

With the season on the line, Andrews loved the complete effort the Stormrays put forth, both on the field and in the dugout. He called their first five batters in the order “the best top five in the state,” and believes they have what it takes to make noise this coming week.

“Every game’s a do-or-die from here, right?” Andrews said. “So we bring that same energy. I loved it from our dugout today from the first pitch. We bring that kind of energy, we’re going to play a lot of baseball like this.

“Our recipe is the same from here on out.”