Prominent Wesco ties to Husky baseball team

Published 9:26 am Friday, April 4, 2008

Geoff Brown still recalls the first time he faced Nick Haughian on a baseball field.

It was the spring of 2004 when Brown, then a freshman at Kamiak, stepped up to the plate against Haughian, a junior pitcher at Marysville-Pilchuck.

“He struck me out three times,” recalled Brown, who played his last two years of high school at Jackson. “So I definitely knew who he was and that he had some really good stuff.”

Four years later, Brown and Haughian are teammates, both pitching for the University of Washington. Joining them on the Washington pitching staff are two more graduates of Wesco schools, Cam Nobles, a sophomore from Jackson, and Brian Pearl a sophomore from Cascade.

Haughian has emerged as one of the Huskies top starters, while Nobles and Brown have split time between the bullpen and the starting rotation. Pearl, meanwhile, has done double duty, serving as Washington’s starting third baseman while also making eight relief appearances, including occasional work as the team’s closer.

“Playing with or against these guys going back to high school, you kind of get a bond being from the same area,” said Nobles, who along with Brown won a state title at Jackson in 2006.

All four Snohomish County pitchers take pride in representing their area. Nobles said he and his teammates were inspired in part by the success of other north end players that came before them. Cleveland Indians centerfielder Grady Sizemore, a Cascade graduate, is a two-time all star, and Jackson grad Brent Lillibridge plays for Atlanta’s Class AAA affiliate, Richmond.

“Wesco South and Wesco North have definitely had a lot of talent come out of there,” Nobles said. “Even going back to Grady and Brent Lillibridge, there are a lot of good players coming out of (Wesco). Seeing what they can do coming from our area when we were younger, we were like, ‘Wow, maybe we can do that someday.’ Looking at what they did, it was like, ‘We can all get there.’”

Washington’s Wesco arms all like to reminisce about the positive and negative memories of playing with and against each other. Nobles and Brown look fondly back at their 27-0 state-championship season, and occasionally remind their teammates that they don’t have one.

Pearl, a .325 hitter, didn’t enjoy as much success at the plate against Nobles.

“I’ve played against Cam since I was 10,” he said. “He usually got the better of me, but I had my moments.”

The north-end bond is something that all four pitchers enjoy.

“Sometimes we like to joke about it,” Haughian said. “Brown and Nobles have a state title, so they get to bring that up whenever they want. It’s cool. Coming in I didn’t know there would be this many people around that I know. Coming up from the same place, it’s fun. We like to give each other a hard time.”

And if Brown gives Haughian a hard time about owning a state title, the elder pitcher can always remind the younger about their on-field meeting four years ago.

“I guess that’s why he’s here as a pitcher,” Haughian said.

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblogd