It seems simple, but it’s true.
In sports, a team can’t lose a game if the other team doesn’t score.
The Seton Catholic baseball team put that theory to the ultimate test this week.
Ryker Ruelas scored on a passed ball with two outs in the top of the eighth inning to get the Cougars 1-0 victory Wednesday over King’s Way Christian.
The second 1-0 win by Seton over the Knights in three days gave the Cougars their first Trico League championship in baseball.
“I think the whole point of (winning back-to-back 1-0 games) is just: Find a way to win,” junior pitcher Kolten Gesser said. “It shows our competitiveness. We’re always going to find a way even if the bats aren’t working, our arms aren’t feeling good, we’re going to find a way to win.”
Seton Catholic beat King’s Way 1-0 on Monday, even though the Cougars did not record a hit — a type of win neither Ruelas nor Gesser had ever experienced before while playing baseball.
Wednesday’s rematch was more of the same as Gesser and King’s Way pitcher Noah Myers matched scoreless frames for the first seven innings.
Seton Catholic did manage five hits on Wednesday, the last of which coming from Ruelas with one out in the top of the eighth.
Ruelas worked his way over to third base on a balk and a fly ball to right.
Then when a 2-2 pitch to Dalton Woods slipped past the catcher, Ruelas alertly raced home to score the game’s only run.
“I was just trying to score a run,” Ruelas said. “It was the top of the eighth … so I was just trying to get (us) on the board.”
But King’s Way did not go quietly in the bottom of the eighth.
Derek Tarnoski led off the inning with a walk and Jace Barnes followed with a single.
After an out, both runners moved up 90 feet on stolen bases before Gesser got the second out with a strikeout. That would be the junior’s last pitch as he reached the pitch count limit.
After an intentional walk to load the bases, freshman Asher LaPointe came in and got the final out on a groundout to third baseman Lucas Peterson, setting of Seton’s celebration.
“I was definitely frustrated that my pitch count was up,” Gesser said. “But Asher coming in and closing it out, he’s a freshman. He’s pitched a lot for us this year. He’s shown kind of what our team motto is, which is being competitive and going out to compete. Going out there, bases loaded, high-pressure situation, and he just gave it up to God and let Him take care of it. He just went and competed. It was fun to watch him, for sure.”
There was plenty at stake on Wednesday. Had King’s Way beaten the Cougars, it would have created a three-way tie for first in the Trico. With tiebreakers, it would have dropped Seton all the way to the No. 3 seed to the district playoffs.
Instead, Seton Catholic heads off to district as the No. 1 seed with 13-1 league record. La Center is second at 12-2, and King’s Way third at 11-3.
All-Region Sports Awards Ceremony
The Columbian will be hosting its second annual All-Region Sports Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at The Hilton Vancouver Washington.
The event will be 6-8 p.m. Admission is $15 and includes food and drink.
Tickets are available now by clicking on link.
“A lot of credit goes to King’s Way,” Seton coach Ted Wieczorek said. “Those guys played their butts off. Myers pitched a great game. Tarnoski pitched a great game on Monday. Hats off to those guys. We knew it would come down to this. We started the league season against La Center, then we ended it with King’s Way. Two great ball games, lot of stuff there worked out in our favor, and now we’re league champs.”
The way the district bracket is set up, it would not surprise anyone to see the Cougars and Knights meet again next week.
But that possibility can wait. Wednesday was about celebrating.
“This is amazing,” Ruelas said. “It’s my senior year, and we have a full group of eight seniors, something like that. So it was just amazing to get the first Trico League (title).”
