Wildcats win state baseball crown

Archbishop Thomas Murphy capped an amazing two-week playoff run by winning the school’s first-ever Class 1A state baseball championship.

The Wildcats, who didn’t allow a run in their last four games, defeated Okanogan 9-0 in the championship game May 29 at Yakima County Stadium.

Senior pitcher Jeff Arkell scattered only three hits in a complete-game performance, while his teammates had 12 hits.

“We played great defense,” said second-year Archbishop Murphy coach Ed Gay. “The pitching was excellent. Everything just fell into place.”

The Wildcats were coming off an emotionally and physically draining 1-0 12-inning victory over Concrete in the semifinals the day before.

Senior Nick Karthas picked up the win, going all 12 innings and helping himself in the bottom of the 12th with a double. Courtesy runner Jake Lyons came in for Karthas and scored the winning run on a single by catcher Alex Burch.

Karthas had never been involved in anything like the semifinal game. After throwing 144 pitches, his arm was understandably spent.

“To tell you the truth, I couldn’t really feel it,” he said. “There was a lot of adrenaline going in. I felt great because we won.”

Gay told Karthas to ice his arm and they would talk later about whether he would play in the championship game.

Karthas insisted to Gay that he would be playing the next day and he took his customary spot at third base.

“He was able to make the plays,” Gay said. “You’d never know that he threw 144 pitches.”

Coming back after such a stirring victory over Concrete wasn’t all that difficult, according to Arkell.

The team had a 6:30 a.m. wakeup call and then headed for batting practice at 8:30. The game was scheduled to start at 10.

“We came in fired up, more fired up than the Concrete game,” Arkell said.

“We just stayed pumped,” Karthas said. “If we could get through a game (semifinals) like that, we could get through anything.”

Gay noticed his players were as focused as they’ve ever been during batting practice.

“I looked at one of the other coaches and said, ‘We’re going to hit the ball well today,’” Gay recalled. “Everybody was so focused. I just went (to the stadium) expecting that we were going to hit really well.”

Both Arkell and Karthas relied on their defense to make plays and the defense responded as it has all season long.

The Wildcats turned their 33rd double play of the season in the finals.

“The defense helped lot,” Karthas said. “Neither me or Jeff got a lot of strikeouts in our games. Our defense helped out big time.”

In order to have a shot at winning a championship, teams need to have two quality pitchers and Gay felt extremely confident with Karthas and Arkell. Both pitchers threw shutouts over Kalama and Bellevue Christian at the regional tournament the week before.

“Nick and I realized … we had to step up and help the team,” Arkell said. “I feel we did that. We were both surprised that we shut out teams like Kalama and Bellevue Christian.”

Archbishop Murphy came into the Final Four with some momentum.

“We just carried over from the regional tournament,” Gay said. “The team felt that they (could) win it all.”

The baseball team has seven players who won state titles with either the football or soccer team. Those players’ experiences made a significant difference in the baseball team’s title run.

“They knew what it was all about,” Gay said. “I think they relayed through their play and how they stepped it up.”

The Wildcats will be losing four seniors — Karthas, Arkell, Ian Telge and Brett McCann — but will be bringing back plenty of talent, including juniors Burch, Chris Mitchell and Patrick Ackerman.

Archbishop Murphy also will be moving up to Class 2A next season.

“I’m confident we’re going to be very competitive next year,” Gay said. “I think the future looks good at Archbishop Murphy with all the underclassmen through the freshman class.”

For Arkell and Karthas, both of whom will be continuing their baseball careers at college, a state championship was the perfect end to their high school careers.

“It means a lot for our school,” Arkell said. “This is the first year that our baseball team has done anything. It just feels good to put up a state championship trophy in our school.”