First, the good news: the White River High baseball team won three of four district games and advanced to the Class 2A state tournament.

And the bad news: once in the 2A’s Sweet 16, the Hornets were shown an early exit, falling 9-3 to the Ridgefield Spudders.

The Class 2 state tournament is a cruel affair in which all eight first-round games are of the loser-out variety.

Playing Saturday, May 18, at Wheeler Field in Centralia, White River fell behind 3-0 after three innings of play. Ridgefield made it 4-0 with another tally in the bottom of the fourth. The Hornets made a game of it with three runs in their half of the sixth inning, but the Spudders responded with a five-run explosion that put the game on ice.

Seniors Brock Keller and Jacob Selander, playing their final games in a White River uniform, each had two hits.

The Hornets concluded a season in which they won the South Puget Sound League 2A title and went 19-7 overall. That included winning two of three games in the SPSL tournament before taking three of four during West Central District play.