Taste of playoff baseball: Puyallup hands Tahoma first loss, 4-2

PUYALLUP, Wash. - The last of the unbeaten Class 4A baseball teams fell on a drippy Thursday night.

Hot-hitting 4A NPSL champion Tahoma and its high-scoring offense certainly had opportunities to get rolling against 15-time defending 4A SPSL champion Puyallup, the perennial program around the state.

But the Bears learned if you don't cash on those chances - eventually the Vikings will.

And Puyallup did, rallying for three fourth-inning runs to take a 4-2 non-league victory at Heritage Recreation Center.

Tahoma (20-1) came in as the No. 1 team in the WIAA's RPI rankings; Puyallup (19-2) was at No. 3.

In SBLive WA's latest rankings, the Vikings were No. 2; Tahoma sat at No. 3.

Whatever the rankings, these are two programs that could very well see each other again - starting next week at the District 3/4 tournament in Kent.

"That is a real good team," Puyallup baseball coach Marc Wiese said. "They are going to do some damage."

It was also a matchup Thursday or arguably the top two catcher prospects in the state - Tahoma's Carson Ohland (Washington signee) and Puyallup's Kai Halstead (Stanford commit).

Both figured heavily into the outcome.

Ohland gave Tahoma the early 1-0 lead with his run-scoring single in the first inning.

The Bears had a chance to pile on more runs, putting runners on third and first base with no outs in the second inning.

But Halstead picked off the baserunner at first base for the first out, and Vikings starting pitcher Hunter Grasser came back to strike out the next two hitters to end the inning.

"I like to make big-time plays. That is what I do," Halstead said. "I knew if I made that throw, it would change the sway of the game."

Halstead tied the game at 1-1 in the fourth inning on his RBI single to left field, scoring Donte Grant.

Two batters later, sophomore Mason Pike delivered the big blow - a two-run triple to right field to give the Vikings a 3-1 lead.

Puyallup took a 4-1 lead into the seventh inning, and had Pike on the mound to close it out.

But a lost-in-the-lights single, followed by a Pike throwing error saw Tahoma cut it to 4-2 with one out and with the tying runs in scoring position.

Pike rebounded to strike out Jackson Burtis, and induced a groundout from Griffin Bye to end the game.

"This game meant a bunch to us today, knowing they were the No. 1 team ... " Halstead said. "We really wanted to take that No. 1 spot back and beat them."