No one could quite put their finger on just what propelled Newport’s improbable run to the final four of the 4A state baseball tournament, a stretch that saw the Knights win 10 of 11 games.

Whatever it was, the magic finally ran out against the state’s top team.

Despite scoring the first two runs of the game, Newport couldn’t hold on and fell 6-2 to the No. 1 ranked Richland Bombers in the semi-finals of the state tournament at Safeco Field on Friday night.

The Knights led 2-0 after the first two innings, but Richland slowly clawed its way back into the game thanks to timely hitting and a strong performance by University of Washington-bound senior Cody Shepherd, who never allowed more than four Newport batters to the plate after RBI singles by Zach Nasu and Brad Binder in the first two frames.

“The first two innings, he left the ball up,” said Richland senior catcher Josh Rapacz. “Once he found his rhythm, that’s when he threw the best. He’s pretty hard to hit when he’s throwing like that.”

With Shepherd holding down the Newport offense, the Bombers bats came to life, tying the game in the fourth and taking the lead for good in the sixth, when a dropped sacrifice fly attempt by Eric Yardley allowed Rapacz to score easily from third.

The 3-2 deficit turned to 6-2 in the seventh when the Bombers tacked on three more runs, taking advantage of two bases-loaded walks by Newport pitcher Cole Wiper and a successful suicide squeeze by Rapacz.

“I trust in their abilities to get the job done,” said Richland coach Ben Jacobs.

Shepherd struck out Andrew West to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning. After walking second baseman Billy Sahlinger, he forced Binder to ground into a double play to end the game and preserve the win.

“I’m just proud of my kids,” said Newport coach Brian Fischer after the loss. “To play in the league that we do, and to fight our way to be here…it’s just an honor to be in the final four.”

“We ended up here and made a run at it,” Fischer later added.

The Bombers (24-2) would go on to beat Puyallup in the championship game for its third state title in five years. Richland won the 2005 and 2007 titles.

Newport was relegated to the third-fourth place game against Tahoma, who lost to Puyallup in the other state semi-final. The Knights, led by the two hits and three RBI of Colin Hering, held a 6-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning, but the Bears stormed back to score four runs and survived a bases-loaded, one-out bottom of the inning to beat Newport 7-6.

“I am so proud of these guys to do what we did,” Fischer said. “We’re looking at the comeback next year.”