Kyle Johnson did it with the bat and the ball in helping lead the Mount Rainier Rams to a 3A West Central District playoff win over Olympic, 5-4, at the Des Moines Fieldhouse Tuesday, May 8.

"The varsity experience is not there from last season, only three regulars," said Darren Rawie, head baseball coach of the traditionally strong Rams program.

That's just to say the Rams lose a lot off a championship caliber team last season and all they did is bring up junior varsity and subs of last season. They unload and reload. That's the sign of a great program, much like Rick Wertman's masterful job with the Rams boys swimming program that won 2001, 2002 and 2003 3A state championships.

The Rams' baseball boys of spring improved to 17-5 overall, with this Olympic win coming just after having won the Seamount League for the fifth time in the last seven seasons.

Just mentioning one fact of the domination is the Rams' league record the past three seasons, 13-1 three years ago, 12-2 last year, and 13-1 again this year for a 38-4 total mark.

All this good could be for naught, however. The Rams lost, 6-4, in a Wednesday game to Capital, played the day after the Olympic one. So that meant they had to win Saturday morning (after press time) to make it to state for the sixth straight season. They played Yelm at 10 a.m. with the loser out.

The Rams are good and, despite what happens there, they were so good last season that they made it all the way to the final four at Safeco Field for the 3A state championship. They did end up losing their games and took fourth. But fourth in the state is not bad at all.

This game against Olympic, a lot of the time, was not good for the many Rams fans watching, especially right near the end. Olympic just had taken a 4-2 lead after the top of the fifth. It looked a little grimmer then, but it wasn't.

"We've come back a couple times now, four or five games this season actually," said Kyle Johnson, who pitched five and two-thirds strong innings, allowing four runs but two unearned.

So, it was the Rams who went to work in the sixth inning to score one run, starting via a Andrew Larson-Pulver lead-off chopper hit to shortstop and the throw pulled the first baseman off the bag. So, safe at first, Larson-Pulver then watched two outs come next before the next batter up, Justin Moser, No.9 in the batting order, was up to the plate.

Moser had talked to an assistant, Joe Nelson, after Moser had flied out to center his last at-bat.

"Justin asked me if I thought he had swung at any pitches that weren't strikes," said Nelson. "And I just said, 'I trust your judgment.'"

It is a good trust on this traditionally powerful Rams team, which really starts with the coaching dicotomy between Rawie, who governs pitching, and Bobby Odegard, the team's hitting coach. But add in Nelson, who is complementary, too, at least showing a trust in one of the players, Moser, despite his having struck out and flied out in his first two at-bats to be 0-for-2.

So Moser was up, two outs gone and the Rams one out removed from still being two runs down going into the seventh. Moser connected. He sent the ball on a line over the infield and in front of a diving Olympic center fielder. It was close to going to be a diving catch some thought, like Rawie.

"It stayed in the air a little too long for comfort," said Rawie. But it did drop in front of that diving center fielder who almost made a great play but did not, and as his dive forward missed the ball it bounced over him on a hop through the lush outfield grass some 20 feet behind him. When the center fielder had frantically ran back to get the ball, Moser was in with a stand-up triple and Larson-Pulver had, of course, scored from third base to cut Olympic's lead to 4-3.

"He was brimming with confidence," said Rawie. "They all were."

And that confidence in the players from Rawie, staring at a two-run deficit late in the game explains a lot of things. Confidence in one means confidence in all, or, in other words, confidence in each other.

"I was not expecting us to be down, but I knew we were able to comeback," said Johnson. "We have four, five games this season where we have been tied or down a run or two, and we have come back."

The noise in the Rams' dugout continued to be backed up with non-stop Rams' players chatter, urging on whoever was up to the plate.

And, with it still a one-run game in the sixth following Moser's nice line-drive to center, it looked good with perhaps the team's best hitter-leadoff man Phillip Horton, at home plate next. Horton had gone 2-for-2 his first two at-bats and he did. This time he hit the ball hard up the middle but right at the Olympic pitcher. He could not cleanly field Horton's hot grounder, but he knocked it down and threw to first just in time.

So, the game was still in Olympic's favor by one run with but one inning remaining.

The Rams' relief pitcher, Brian Alexander, shut down Olympic in the top of the seventh and then it was the Rams' last chance to make something happen. They did, and it was pitchers Alexander and Johnson that did the most damage in the beginning of the bottom of the seventh. Alexander led off with a single up the middle that was a big hit.

"I knew I had to get a hit, start us off," said Alexander. "I stepped up and crowded the plate and that must have made him nervous. He piped in a fastball and I hit it over the middle, it was right there."

It was demoralizing to that Olympic pitcher for certain and the next hitters pretty much demolished things for Olympic.

Kyle Baskett followed Alexander's leadoff momentum with a double to left center to put Baskett at second and Alexander at third. Johnson, up next, smashed the ball up the middle and Alexander scored. Rawie at first was wanting to wave in Baskett but put the palms up, holding Baskett at third. The score was 4-4 now, for those keeping track. And Rawie must have known that Landon Sundblad could knock in Johnson simply enough.

Sundblad connected perfectly, sending the ball over the right fielder's head and that was the ballgame.

"Big hit by Landon," said Rawie.

It was a nice hit but the Rams were just bigger than life in the seventh. They didn't even have one out before Sundblad's game-winning RBI.

Rawie was happy with different aspects of this game that included Olympic scoring first in the top of the second before the Rams tied it up in the third on an Olympic first baseman fielding error and Johnson RBI single scoring Horton, who doubled to open the inning.

"I was happy with our pitcher's pitches and the pitch selection," said Rawie. "Mike McDermott (catcher) called the game. I was happy with the clutch hitting the second half of the game."

Odegard added, "We had four straight hits in the seventh. That was the kind of offense I expected to see all game, and it did finally come. It just took awhile to get things going for us. I knew our hitters would come through."