SNOQUALMIE – The Kingco 3A regular season crown has already been wrapped up for the Mount Si baseball team, and with it came a No. 1 state ranking last week. Last week’s results, however, particularly with the bats, showed the team will have their work cut out for them if they want to succeed in the postseason.
Last Tuesday, the Wildcats traveled to Bellevue Community College to play Newport and picked up a 3-2 win over the Knights, despite only tallying three hits. Mount Si took advantage of three Knights’ errors, and to the Wildcats’ credit their defense played well, not giving up an error in the contest.
Newport scored first in the third. After Mount Si catcher Brandon Sales caught Matt Kutoff stealing second base for the first out, Brett Griffin doubled. Two hitters later, Jason Moseby singled, scoring Griffin from third base.
The Wildcats erupted for their three runs in the fourth. With two out, Remo Castagno and Chris Brown, who had both reached base on walks, pulled off a double steal, moving Castagno from second to third and Brown from first to second. Ian Atkinson then hit a ground ball to first, which was bobbled by Knights’ first baseman Trent Henderson, allowing Castagno to score to tie the game. Zach Bowen then had the big hit, a double to right center that scored Brown and Atkinson.
Newport rallied late. With two out, Jason Kim singled, then Moseby tripled to score Kim. Wildcat pitcher Blaine Sutton then took matters into his own hands and struck out the Knights’ Ben Harty for the final out.
Mount Si handles Bellevue
Last Wednesday, Mount Si finished the regular season against the Bellevue Wolverines whose pitcher made the difference, except for the final outcome. Like the first time he faced Mount Si earlier this season, Bellevue senior Colin Ratcliffe shut down the Wildcat bats, but Mount Si still was able to muster enough to pull out a 1-0 win.
This win was largely due to strong pitching and defense. In the bottom of the sixth, after Mount Si had scored its run in the top of the frame, there were two outs and a man on when Bellevue’s Stephen Englund hit a ball off the tall right-field fence, which was fielded by Bowen. He fired a strike to Castagno who then sent it on to Brandon Sales, who tagged out that runner for the final out.
In the bottom of the seventh, with one out and the tying and winning runs on base for the Wolverines, pinch hitter Sam Milne hit a ball to center field that was caught spectacularly by Atkinson. Atkinson then threw the ball to Tyler Starkel, who then threw to Dentz to pick the Bellevue runner, Chris Morton, off of first base for the final out.
Mount Si’s sixth-inning run was scored with the bases loaded and one out. Castagno hit a sacrifice fly out to center, scoring Starkel from third.
Mount Si coach Gary McGregor knows that with the offensive troubles, there’s still a lot to do to be successful at the end of the day and it all rests on the defense and pitching.
“We’ve always said right at the beginning of the year, defense and pitching is going to carry us as far as it will. We knew going in that we had a dominant pitcher in Adam. We were hoping Mr. [Blaine] Sutton, Mr. [Kenny] Casem, and Mr. [Chris] Brown, Mr. [Erik] Alexander, and Mr. [(Andrew] Pass would all step up, and they all have,” said McGregor.
The Wildcats play Thursday and Saturday at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue in the Kingco Tournament. Should Mount Si win the tournament, they will advance to regional play at the state tournament next weekend at one of the following four sites: Bannerwood, Skagit Valley College in Mount Vernon, Fort Borst Park in Centralia, or Yakima County Stadium in Yakima. The site is still to be announced. If the Wildcats finish second, they would play a Metro opponent for the final Sea-King slot to state.
