EVERETT — The Cascade Bruins, the No. 1 seed in the 4A District 1 baseball tournament, needed extra innings to fend off a gritty effort by the No. 4 seed Mount Vernon Bulldogs, but an RBI by Michael Carter in the bottom of the eighth inning sent the Bruins to Thursday’s district championship where they will face Snohomish.
“We made a couple of early errors,” Cascade head coach Scott Stencil said. “I think we had a few playoff nerves.”
Senior Cameron McGrath started on the mound for the Bruins, but gave up an early lead to the Bulldogs. His struggles on the mound didn’t effect him at the plate. McGrath finished the game 3-for-4 with two runs scored.
“He just had a great day grinding out at-bats,” Stencil said. “He’s been in the two spot all year long and just had some great at bats. He’s seeing the ball real well right now.”
Though the Bruins won the league championship, they have been involved in several close games this season, so Monday’s challenge was nothing new.
“Our mentality this year is that we always kept fighting in games,” Stencil said. “We’ve had a lot of games like this where we’ve come back or had a close one-run win. I don’t know how to explain it other than that it is fun to watch.”
At Cascade H.S.
WP: Brett Gillis (4 IP, 0 R, 7 K). LP: Dougliss. Individual highlights: Mount Vernon—Tobiason (2-4), Cyr (1-3, 2 R); Cascade—Cameron McGrath (3-4, 2 R), Michael Carter (2-4, 2 R, game-winning RBI). Records—Mount Vernon 13-9. Cascade 14-7.
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