Colfax baseball team caps historic year for Bulldogs

Colfax's baseball team entered the 2002 season knowing two things.

First, no Bulldogs baseball team had ever made it to the state semifinals.

Second, if the squad could win the state title, Colfax would become the first school in 1A history to win four state championships in a single year.

The squad had a rowdy ride home Saturday night knowing it made history with a 5-1 win over Bellevue Christian at Yakima County Stadium.

Behind a 94-pitch, four-hit complete game by Tim Sloot, Colfax finished a 25-1 season. Sloot faced just four batters over the maximum as he ran his season record to 9-0.

Veteran coach Mike Parrish, seeing the project he began 12 years ago as an assistant complete, was all smiles.

"I told them this morning, `As long as we're here, we might as well win it'" he said. "For a long time, I wondered if we'd ever win one (a state championship) in baseball."

Parrish said Sloot's performance was exactly what he'd come to expect from the crafty junior with a deadly pickoff move.

"It was vintage Sloot," Parrish said. "If we can get him through the first inning without major damage, he's OK."

That's exactly how it went.

Sloot gave up the only run on a single, a fielder's choice and a single by Daniel Downs in the first inning. He then retired the side in order in four of the final six innings.

No. 9 hitter Steve Rosenbeck led the Colfax offense. He drove in a run with a single in the second inning and walked twice, scoring himself on John White's double in the fourth.

Rosenbeck doesn't bat in the bottom of the order because he can't hit. His average is .424. He's there because he does hit and his speed sets the table for the top of the order.

Rosenbeck's older brother, Jim, should get credit for a little of the success. A few years ago in Pony League, he taught Sloot the slick pickoff move that caught two Vikings runners flat-footed at first base and cut short potential uprisings in the third and fourth innings.

Sloot and fellow Colfax pitcher Rick Templeton allowed just four runs and 10 hits in 14 innings here. Neither surrendered a run after the third inning.

Copyright 2002 Cowles Publishing Company
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