Grubb’s pitching, plenty of offense have Monte one win from district title

Bulldogs 9-11 Little Leaguers beat Chehalis 13-5 to advance to Friday’s winner-take-all contest

By Ryan Sparks • June 28, 2019 5:00 am

Montesano’s 9-11 year old Little League all-star team got an excellent pitching performance from Caden Grubb and plenty of run support to defeat Chehalis 13-5 in the first game of the District 3 championships on Thursday in Aberdeen.

Montesano, which lost to Chehalis 5-1 Tuesday and had to battle back from the loser’s bracket to advance to the championship round, belted out nine hits and made the most of six Chehalis walks, three errors and four hit batsmen.

Monte led 1-0 after a half-inning but saw Chehalis’ offense score five runs off Grubb, three of those being unearned after an error extended the Chehalis inning.

But Montesano responded the following half-inning, capitalizing on three hit batters and two errors to score six runs with just one base hit in the inning — a Trent Scott RBI single to right field.

Monte’s offense was back at it in the fourth inning, scoring four runs on four hits. Carter Aames led off the inning with a double and scored on Ryder Creamer’s base hit one batter later.

With runners on first and third with one out, Brody Williamson drove in a run on a fielder’s choice groundout.

Adam Schmitz then recorded a base hit of his own that allowed Rufus Krasowski to score after getting out of a pickle between third and home.

Later in the inning, Terek Gunter blooped a single to left to drive in the Bulldogs’ 11th run of the contest.

Grubb got an RBI double in the fifth, and Monte added to its lead with a run on a Gunter single to provide Grubb with plenty of insurance runs to work with.

But the lefty didn’t need them.

Grubb proceeded to shut down the Chehalis offense over the final four innings of play. After Chehalis’ outburst in the second inning, Grubb had a stretch where he retired eight straight batters and 10 of the last 11 he faced.

Grubb reached his pitch limit with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning and gave way to his twin brother, Colton, who struck out Fox Rodgerson to end the game.

With the win, Monte and Chehalis will play a winner-take-all final game for the district championship at 6 p.m. on Friday at Pioneer Park in Aberdeen.