Mount Si baseball scores early and often against Bellevue

By Rhett Workman

Contributing Writer

Observers of the Kingco 3A conference see the Mount Si baseball team as one of the potential leaders of the league this spring.

That promise was demonstrated in the stroke of an inning on Wednesday, March 17, as the Wildcat offense sent a big message to the rest of the league.

Mount Si scored eight runs in the first inning and sent 11 hitters to the plate, then used solid pitching from senior Josh Kimborowicz and sophomore Trevor Taylor to shut the Bellevue Wolverines down the rest of the way. The Wildcats posted a 10-1 blowout over a Wolverine team who is also being looked at as a possible league contender.

Even though it was no contest, Wildcat coach Chaz Carr wasn’t all smiles after the game.

“Right now, I call us a one inning wonder,” Carr said. “It was a 2-1 ballgame the last six innings, so Bellevue, I think, brought it for a longer period of time than we did.”

The Wildcats got the ball rolling right away. Rossco Castagno, leading off the game, singled, then stole second base. After junior Matt Bankston struck out swinging, Danny Cavanaugh singled, and an error by Bellevue’s second baseman helped to score Castagno and put Mount Si on the board first. But the fun was only beginning. Junior Tim Proudfoot, with Cavanaugh aboard at first, homered to left center to put the Wildcats up 3-0.

“I got up there and the first pitch (was a) fastball, jumped on it, knew he was coming with it,” Proudfoot said. Robb Lane then walked, followed by a single by Dustin Breshears and a Frank Tassara walk.

With the bases loaded, Shane Dixon hit a groundball to the Bellevue shortstop, who threw to second in an attempt to get Tassara out. That failed as the Wildcat senior reached second base before the throw did, meaning Dixon was also safe at first, Lane scored from third and Mount Si was up 4-0. Then it was Brown’s turn. He made no mistake, hitting a grand slam home run to right center off the scoreboard to clear the bases and put the Wildcats up 8-0. Brown wasn’t expecting it, either.

“I was looking to protect and I saw an outside fastball, so I just took it the other way, trying to just get a base hit,” Brown said. Castagno and Bankston then both came back up and recorded outs to end the inning, but the damage was done.

Kimborowicz struggled some in the top of the second, but got the benefit of a double play by way of Bellevue runner interference to get him out of trouble, then got back to normal and shut down the Wolverines in the third and fourth before Taylor came in to do the rest. Kimborowicz only gave up one hit and struck out four in his four innings of work.

Mount Si scored again in the second, on a Breshears sacrifice fly which scored Proudfoot. A Cavanaugh single in the sixth added one more run, scoring Castagno. Proudfoot finished 2-4 with the two runs and two RBIs, while Brown finished 1-3 on the day with the grand slam.

Carr hopes to see more of what he saw in the first inning last the entire ballgame.

“That’s the team we want to see for seven innings. When we do, then we’re going to be real dangerous,” the coach said.