HS Baseball: WF West Sweeps Doubleheader with Black Hills

4/15/26

(Chehalis, WA) Rain always affects high school baseball in the state of Washington and as a result of the weather, Black Hills and WF West ended up playing a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon. The two teams returned to league play after Spring Break as the Wolves returned to action for the first time since April 3rd. WF West played twice since then as they entered on an eight-game winning streak with the last three wins coming via the 10-run mercy rule.

WF West 20, Black Hills 1 (5 Innings)

It wasn’t a clean start for Hayden Rooney on the mound for WF West as he fell behind of the leadoff man Lincoln Brannin before hitting him on the third pitch. Brannin moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with one out for Asher Strauss. Strauss would send a soft chopper up the third base line that stayed fair. Luke McMillan tried to throw Strauss out at first although he had no chance to get him. As McMillan made the throw, Brannin broke for home and would score on the infield single to give Black Hills an early 1-0 lead.

Black Hills got out of trouble in the 1st but WF West put more pressure on in the 2nd. Beckman Dvorak walked but Joel Beldo retired the next two batters as he looked to put up another zero. A fly ball off the bat of Miles Martin should have been the third out, but it was dropped for an error, allowing Dvorak to score to tie the game. Things fell apart after that for Black Hills. Walks, errors, and wild pitches allowed WF West to put up six runs with two outs and end Joel Beldo’s day early with the Bearcats leading 6-1.

WF West would bat around the order in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings as they completely poured it on the Black Hills Wolves. The Bearcats had constant traffic on base and were not shying away from stealing bases. The Bearcats put up seven runs in both the 3rd and 4th innings. Meanwhile, Hayden Rooney was dealing as he didn’t burn too many pitches. Rooney only needed three pitches in the 4th as three fly balls were caught by Reece Marquez in center. Gage Wiens came in to close it out with a 1-2-3 top of the 5th to give WF West a dominant 20-1 win in game one.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of the game went to Hayden Rooney for WF West. After a shaky start to the game, Rooney settled in and dominated the rest of his outing. He retired the final 10 batters that he faced and went four innings with one hit and one run allowed without allowing a walk (although he did hit a batter) and struck out three.

Notable Performances

Black Hills

Asher Strauss- 1-2, RBI
Lincoln Brannin- 0-1, R, HBP
Joel Beldo- 1.2 IP, 3 H, 6 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO

WF West

Hayden Rooney- 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO
Wyatt Hoffman- 2-2, 2 RBI, 3 R, 3 BB, 2 SB
Connor Coleman- 2-3, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, BB

Link to watch full game replay on the NFHS Network (subscription required)

ESN Postgame Show

Highlights

Wolves Strike First

Smaciarz Speed Earns Hit

Coleman Three-Run Double

WF West 7, Black Hills 2

Game two would get going pretty quickly after game one. Gage Wiens would be on the mound for WF West after closing out game one and he got off to a strong start with a 1-2-3 1st. Toby Hilden struggled out of the gate for Black Hills as he walked the first two batters he faced to put Wyatt Hoffman and Hiroto Smaciarz on. After getting Alex Stafford to fly out, Hilden couldn’t get ahead of Connor Coleman as he smoked a line drive over the right fielders head for a two-run triple. Coleman then scored on an RBI groundout by Beckman Dvorak to give WF West an early 3-0 lead.

Wiens rolled through the next three innings and Hilden was strong after that as well. Hilden allowed a couple of walks that he left stranded and bailed out an error by his third baseman to keep it 3-0. In the top of the 5th, rumblings started to occur as Wiens had not allowed a baserunner. He retired the first two batters in that inning before Elijah Simpson drew a walk to end the perfect game bid. Jake Tinsley broke up the no-hitter with a base hit to extend the inning. Then things got very interesting as Joel Beldo flipped a line drive into right field that got by Connor Coleman. That allowed both Simpson and Tinsley to score to cut the deficit to 3-2. Wiens stranded the tying run at third as he struck out Toby Hilden but Black Hills was back in it going into the bottom of the 5th.

The top of the order put more pressure on the Wolves as Wyatt Hoffman reached on an error. He made his way to third with one out and Alex Stafford sent a grounder out to shortstop. Cooper Parkinson made a strong throw to the plate, but a fantastic slide by Hoffman saw him avoid the tag to score to make it 4-2. Two batters later, Beckman Dvorak got the second run back with an RBI single to put the Bearcats back up by three at 5-2.

Insurance was critical for the Bearcats in this one and they got it in the 6th. Luke McMillan started the inning with a walk and he worked his way around to third on a groundout and passed ball. With the infield drawn in, Wyatt Hoffman sent a line drive by them for an RBI single to make it 6-2. He would again steal second and then looked to steal third as well. As the third baseman was going to cover the bag, Alex Stafford blistered a line drive right where he vacated and down the left field line. Hoffman scored easily on Stafford’s double to extend the lead to 7-2.

Hudson McCallum finished off the 6th in relief of Gage Wiens and was back out there for the 7th. He would deal with some traffic as Jake Tinsley reached second with a one-out double as the Wolves tried to rally. It wasn’t mean to be however as McCallum settled in to strikeout both Joel Beldo and Kodey Miller to put the doubleheader away. It was the 10th straight win for WF West as they swept the doubleheader over Black Hills, winning game two 7-2.

Our Thorbeckes MVP of game two was Wyatt Hoffman for WF West. The shortstop had an incredible day in total, reaching base in all nine plate appearances but in game two was 1-2 with two walks, an RBI, three runs scored, and a whopping four stolen bases. It was a very busy day for the sophomore but he put pressure on the Wolves every single time he was at the plate and on base.

WF West moves to 10-1 on the season as they push their winning streak to ten games. The Bearcats will take their 5-0 league record into a huge showdown at Tumwater at 4:30pm on Friday in a game you can see here on ESN. Black Hills drops to 2-7 in league play and 0-5 in EvCo 2A play. The Wolves will look for their first league win on Friday when they visit Shelton at 4:30pm.