Tahoma’s unexpected extended journey this year came to an end on May 19 at the hands of Todd Beamer in a one-run loss in the second round of the 4A state baseball tournament.

Bears head coach Russ Hayden said the team just couldn’t seem to catch a break in that game, which was the third week in a row Tahoma had played Beamer in a playoff contest, as the Bears left 11 guys on the bags in the 3-2 defeat.

“Both teams played pretty equal,” Hayden said. “We did have three errors but none of them cost us a run. Any time you make errors it costs you pitches.”

Hayden had to pull sophomore pitcher Nate Brown after five innings.

“It was one of those games you just couldn’t get a break,” he said. “We just couldn’t get a clutch hit.”

With two runners on base in the seventh inning against Beamer, Troy LaBrie hit “a screaming line drive right at the right fielder,” Hayden said, but the guy managed to get the ball in his glove and those runners didn’t move.

Tahoma could’ve scored more runs against Rogers, too, but left 14 runners on in the first round of state earlier in the day on May 19, Hayden added. The Bears put together a 7-4 victory to move on to the elite eight at Heidelberg Park in Puyallup.

All season long, though, Tahoma had to fight for every run it got which ultimately spelled defeat in the final game at state.

Still, Hayden was pleased with how the season went given he only had one senior on his pitching staff this spring.

“Going into this season, I was hoping we could finish .500 … maybe get a playoff game or two in,” he said. “For those guys to play as well as they did this year, to win 17 games, that’s pretty impressive to me. I told them they had nothing to be ashamed of, to get to the eight at state, I think they should be proud of their accomplishments. It’s always fun to win more than you expect to.”

Hayden’s early season expectations seemed to come true early on. Tahoma won its first three games, then hit a three-game skid before pulling it together and going 9-1.

Thinking ahead to next spring, though, Hayden will lose a number of his top defensive players to graduation as well as his top three hitters in Connor Cloyd, Jason Smith and John Bodenhamer, who hit six home runs and was named the South Puget Sound League North MVP.

Cloyd hit .482 with 15 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, while Smith hit .464 and Bodenhamer finished with a .414 batting average while leading the team with 31 RBIs as well as 19 walks.

Bodenhamer also went 5-2 on the mound with an ERA of 2.49.

Looking at his senior class, Hayden said, relative to his younger players he knows those boys have some work to do in the offseason.

“I pulled a lot of our young guys aside,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of growth to do physically. You’ve got to start getting bigger, stronger, faster physically.”

On the flip side, he’s got three throwers who will return next season.

“We’ve got a lot of good pitchers coming back,” Hayden said. “We’ve got a lot of reloading to do, hopefully not rebuilding.”