<< Previous   of   Next >> Jennifer Buchanan/The Herald  (click to enlarge) Mountlake Terrace's Garrett Totten high-fives teammates as he returns to the dugout after smashing a grand slam in the second inning of Monday's game.

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Fast start lifts Terrace baseball over Stanwood

Garrett Totten's grand slam in the second propels Hawks to 9-2 win

By Mike Cane
Herald Writer

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE -- For reasons unknown the Mountlake Terrace High School baseball team tends to be sluggish at the start of a game, Garrett Totten said.

On Monday, Totten, Mountlake Terrace's senior shortstop, generated the perfect wake-up call.

Totten crushed a go-ahead grand slam in the second inning that gave the Hawks the lead for good, starting pitcher Jake Theis tossed a five-hitter and Terrace beat the Stanwood Spartans 9-2 in a first-round Class 4A District 1 tournament game.

Totten, a Texas Tech University recruit, was 3-for-4 with four RBI for Terrace (15-6), which won its sixth-consecutive game. The Hawks, seeded No. 1 among Western Conference South Division teams, play Shorewood at 7 p.m. tonight in a winner-to-state game at Everett Memorial Stadium.

Totten's slam was the first in his varsity career at Terrace. Totten, who attends King's in Shoreline but plays baseball for Terrace because King's doesn't have a program, blasted an offspeed pitch by Stanwood pitcher Kalob Orcutt well beyond the left-field fence. It gave Terrace a 5-1 lead and a lot of confidence.

"Garrett's a great player. He's the anchor to everything that we've done out here this year," Hawks coach Andrew Watters said.

Theis (6-1) gave up a run in the second inning and another in the third. The tall right-hander eventually settled into a groove and ended up tallying six strikeouts and two walks.

"Jake Theis is going to be really tough to beat when he's got a lead like that," said Watters, "because he throws strikes and he makes them hit and he doesn't give anything up."

Wesco North No. 4 seed Stanwood (11-9) plays Monroe at 7 p.m. tonight in a loser-out game at Mountlake Terrace High School.

"Our guys kind of got the first-game jitters out of the way, hopefully, and they're ready," Stanwood coach Tony Wolden said.

The Spartans came ready to play and battled well all game against Theis, Wolden said.

"From the beginning of the game our guys were focused and we were facing one of the better pitchers in the state," said Wolden.

Orcutt, Stanwood's starting pitcher, walked three batters in the second inning, setting up Totten's lead-changing homer. It came one pitch after Orcutt walked Jaykob Sells and forced in Terrace's first run, tying the score at 1-1.

"It was huge … to have Totten clutch up in a playoff game and hit a bomb," Theis said.

"He's a good hitter," Wolden said, "and he hit it 340 feet."

Totten leads Terrace with four home runs and 26 RBI this season. He said the slam got his teammates' attention and energized them after a quiet start.

"I think it woke them up a little bit. I know we were kind of quiet. I don't think they knew how important the game was," Totten said.

Maybe the impact of Totten's latest homer will carry over to today's game for Terrace, which is trying to qualify for the state tourney for the second time in three seasons.

"We always start flat," Totten said. "There's never a game where we come out stoked and ready to play. Something's got to motivate them."

Terrace's other hitting standouts were Karsten Strieby (2-for-2) and Matt Shafer (one double, two RBI).

At Mountlake Terrace H.S.

Stanwood 011 000 0 -- 2 5 0

M. Terrace 050 004 x -- 9 10 1

Orcutt, Plummer (6) and Joyce. Theis and Clingan. WP-Theis (6-1). LP-Orcutt (2-2). 2B-Pearson (S) 1, R. Sells (MT) 1, Shafer (MT) 1. 3B-Mann (MT) 1. HR-Totten (MT) 1. Records-Stanwood 11-9 overall. Mountlake Terrace 15-6.

Writer Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.