In an era of pitch counts, mercy rules and better overall hitting skills, big strikeout numbers don’t come along like they used to. Especially in a Class 4A baseball game.

But West Valley’s Brody Mills had himself a day on Tuesday, striking out 15 of the 26 batters he faced in a 4-0 seven-inning win over Eastmont. The lefty allowed three hits and one walk.

“Brody was pretty overpowering and his curve ball was dominant as well,” said WV coach Ryan Johnson, whose team will take a nine-game win streak to Eastmont on Friday for a doubleheader. “When he did get a deeper count, he really buckled down.”

Mills struck out each of Eastmont’s batters at least once and two went down on strikes three times. Of his 101 pitches, 72 were strikes.

“A hundred pitches is a lot and we check on the numbers every inning. We are sensitive about it,” Johnson said. “Brody is pretty much a year-round kid and he’s strong, so I wasn’t concerned about him throwing too much. After the fifth and sixth, he was still sailing.”

In his two previous starts in April, Mills threw four innings last week against Eisenhower with nine strikeouts and, 10 days earlier, pitched five frames against Sunnyside, fanning 10. The Rams have Tommy Meluskey and Steven Johnson ready to go on Friday.

During one of my pandemic research projects, I attempted to compile a list of the most strikeouts in a single outing and it became obvious that list would be heavily weighted toward the 1960s and 70s when velocities were generally lower and pitch counts were much higher and far less of a concern.

An example: The most I found for West Valley was 18 by John McCorkindale against Sunnyside in 1973. The Rams actually lost that game 4-3 in 13 innings and McCorkindale pitched 10 of them. WV’s Kyle Parker, however, did fan 17 against Wapato over seven innings in 2003.

Since it took so long for this pairing to come about, waiting a couple weeks longer isn’t a big deal. With as wet, cold and snowy as the spring season has been, moving games and waiting has been the norm.

Nevertheless, when Selah baseball tries again to host Naches Valley on Monday — a game that was originally scheduled for April 12 — it will mark the first meeting between the Valley’s two most successful programs in as long as anyone can remember.

NV coach Jake Fife, a Selah graduate and standout pitcher and infielder for the Vikings, has participated in Selah’s preseason jamboree and this year got his Rangers a regular-season date on his former home field. That’s partially because Selah had eight nonleague dates to fill on weekdays, since the CWAC plays its doubleheaders on Saturdays.

Selah coach Mike Archer, whose team started the week at No. 3 in the 2A state RPI but jumped to No. 1 with Wednesday’s win over Tumwater, assembled a stout nonleague lineup that has included three top-10 teams — W.F. West, Tumwater and Lynden — along with Davis and now Naches Valley, which is No. 7 in 1A. Ephrata is No. 2 in the RPI.

In Valley history, Selah leads in state trophies (14) and state appearances (32) and Naches Valley is second in both with 11 trophies and 25 appearances.

By the way, Jake Fife shows up on the notable strikeout list, having fanned 18 in a game against Ellensburg in 2009.

Four players who helped Toppenish’s football team win 11 games and reach the state quarterfinals have settled plans to continue playing collegiately.

SCAC West offensive player of the year Jason Grant is headed to Eastern Oregon, where he’ll join Zillah commits Zane Delp and Braydon Flood.

Rocco Clark and Kanin Sampson, both first-team all-league offensive lineman, are going to the University of Minnesota Morris in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, and defensive end Dakota Bauer has signed with the University of Puget Sound.

Davis’ Dhantaye Bennett-Joe and Eisenhower’s Mia Rodriguez have committed to the Yakima Valley College basketball programs, while Yakama Tribal’s Justice Hart and Prosser’s Malia Cortes are headed to Walla Walla.

Sunnyside’s Alyna Ramirez and Benemi Sanchez have signed with Green River and Whatcom, respectively, and Goldendale’s Payton Sheridan is headed to Lane.

In soccer, Toppenish’s Alexander Magana, who’s leading the Valley in scoring, is joining teammate Juan Mendoza-Mejia at Columbia Basin, and West Valley’s Mackenzie Kitt has committed to Yakima Valley.

Selah sprinter Shaun Salveson, the Valley leader in the 200 and 400, is headed to Spokane, and Prosser’s Olivia Campos has signed with Walla Walla for volleyball.

Prosser has a 21-team field set for Saturday’s 60th Rotary Invitational track and field meet at Fiker Stadium, where big marks are routine.

At the 2007 Rotary meet, Othello’s Courtney Kirkwood set an all-time state record with a throw of 160-10. Four years later her sister Christine Kirkwood upped that to 173-9 — a state record that still stands — when Prosser hosted the 2A regional meet.

Local schools in the field will be Davis, East Valley, Ellensburg, Grandview, Granger, La Salle, Selah, Sunnyside, West Valley and Zillah.

• Not very many athletes recorded big marks at Saturday’s cold and wet Pasco Invitational, but West Valley’s Katie Murdock sure did. The sophomore clocked a CBBN-best 11:22.84 in the 3,200, slashing 26 seconds off her previous best, and moved up to fourth in school history.

The WIAA’s RPI rankings always take a few odd twists and turns from week to week and this week we have 4A baseball, where Moses Lake (10-0, 11-1) has jumped into the top 10 at No. 3 while West Valley (9-1, 10-1) has dropped out after reaching No. 5 last week. The Rams, ranked No. 17 on Thursday, have won nine straight games.

In boys soccer, East Valley is No. 5 in 2A with Othello No. 9. The Red Devils play at Othello on Saturday. The SCAC-EWAC is all over the 1A top 10 with Connell (2), Toppenish (4), Highland (6) and Wahluke (7).

East Valley (12-3) is No. 8 in 2A softball, and Kittitas (8-0) and Mabton (6-0) are holding their ground at No. 4 and 9 in 2B.

Reach Scott Spruill at sspruill@yakimaherald.com.

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