One more win and you can call the Central Whidbey Junior (13-14) baseball team state champions.

Central Whidbey defeated Richmond 13-8 Thursday, July 22, at Medical Lake High School and propelled itself into the championship game today, July 24, at 10 a.m. CW is the lone undefeated team and will meet the club that survives the consolation bracket. The consolation winner (either Richmond or West Valley) will have to defeat Central Whidbey twice to tug the crown away from the local team. The second game, if necessary, will follow at 3 p.m.

Central Whidbey coach Chris Tumblin called the win over Richmond a “phenomenal game.” Down 6-4 heading into the sixth, CW scored five runs in the sixth and four in the seventh to wrap up the win.

Morgan Payne spurred the rallies with bases-clearing, extra-base hits in both innings. For the game, he slugged two singles, two doubles and a triple and had six RBI.

Jake Tumblin started the sixth-inning uprising with a triple, then came in relief in the seventh and “was throwing gas,” according to coach Tumblin, to secure the win.

Ben Etzell finished with three singles, and Aaron Curtin had two base hits.

Central Whidbey used five pitchers to keep each hurler’s pitch count down, and four are still eligible for Saturday’s games. Coach Tumblin said assistant coach Ramon Villaflor has been “a masterpiece” in handling the staff.

The 13-run effort by Central Whidbey was a result of a strong offense and not sloppy play by the North Seattle club, according to Tumblin: “It was mostly clean hitting on our part.”