A chess match between two highly-ranked prospects Friday highlighted the talent on display at the Baseballism PNW Kickoff Classic.
Mount Vernon and Battle Ground faced off in the Robert Ramsey Bracket at Mountain View High School, which included a matchup between Mount Vernon’s Xavier Neyens and Battle Ground’s James Gill III.
Neyens, who’s currently the ninth-ranked prospect in the 2025 Draft, according to MLB.com, blasted a double to the wall on just the second pitch of the game against Gill.
The Tigers’ junior, the No. 4-ranked player in the Class of 2026, was quick to adjust to the powerful lefty hitter by striking Neyens out in his next at-bat.
Gill threw four scoreless innings with eight strikeouts, no walks and three hits allowed before Mount Vernon, the Class 3A state runner-up, held on for a 4-3 win in extra innings.
The game was one of many intriguing storylines among 24 Washington teams playing in the tournament across four sites in Clark County March 20-22.
In between games Thursday at the Ridgefield Outdoor Recreation Complex, tournament organizer Jason Castro said they would ideally like to add teams from neighboring states Oregon and Idaho, giving the tournament more regional appeal like Portland’s Les Schwab Invitational for basketball.
This year’s field featured 13 Washington teams that played in the state tournaments between 4A and 1A, highlighted by local teams Battle Ground, La Center, Ridgefield and Columbia River, the 2A defending state champion.
It also had nine players committed Division I programs, including Neyens (Oregon State), Gill (Washington) and Columbia River senior left-handed pitcher Harrison Hoffarth (Seattle University).
Other thrillers
The first Kickoff Classic featured multiple walk-off wins and extra-inning thrillers.
To reach the championship game of the Richie Sexson Bracket at Ridgefield, the Ridgefield Spudders had to rally from a 3-0 deficit in the seventh inning against Fife in the semifinals.
“We were struggling to make adjustments,” Ridgefield coach Nick Allen said. “But then in the seventh, just all of sudden, boom-boom, we tie the thing up, go to the eighth and win it in the bottom of the eighth.”
Two singles, a hit batsmen and a walk got the Spudders their first run.
Caleb Tortora’s sacrifice fly to left scored Lewis with the second run.
Jack Curtis tagged at second and went to third, and the Trojans’ throw to third got away, allowing Curtis to score the tying run.
Fife put two on with one out in the eighth, but the rally ended when Tortora threw out a runner at the plate trying to score on a sacrifice fly.
Wikstrom’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth scored Wyatt Hemmelman with the winning run.
“It was a fun game,” Allen said. “Fife is a good team, loaded with seniors. It was a great high school baseball game.”
Battle Ground scored four runs in the top of the eighth inning to beat Tahoma 7-3 on Saturday in the Robert Ramsey Bracket at Mountain View.
Ethan Scott scored in the bottom of the eighth when an attempt to catch him stealing third was mishandled, allowing Scott to score the winning run for Heritage in a 4-3 win over Hudson’s Bay in the Randy Myers Bracket at Heritage.
Wild race at Wildcat Relays
The Wildcat Relays track and field meet at La Center on Friday featured a wild race in the boys 4,000-meter distance medley.
A Battle Ground team featuring Devontae Kephart, Trent Richardson, Zachary Zamora and Lord King Nana-Badu-Weah finished in a dead heat for first place with a La Center squad of Riley Sypher, Jaxson Potts, Lou Kissinger and Carson Vann.
Both teams finished in 10 minutes, 59.56 seconds.
Prairie finished third in the race, less than 0.4 seconds behind the winners in 10:59.85.
Key events this week
The Hockinson boys soccer team, fresh off a 2-0 win over R.A. Long on Friday, gets the chance to stand alone atop the 2A Greater St. Helens League when the Hawks host Columbia River on Tuesday.
Columbia-White Salmon and Seton Catholic, two teams that battled for the 1A district title last year in boys soccer, will meet in a Trico League match Wednesday at Seton Catholic
