4A District 1 baseball playoff field is deep and impressive

Published 11:51 pm Friday, May 7, 2010

How loaded is the 2010 Class 4A District 1 baseball tournament? In this talent-rich field, the state’s top-ranked team isn’t even a No. 1 seed.

The Vikings of Lake Stevens High School are 19-1 and ranked first in Lem Elway’s latest 4A Washington Baseball Poll. Yet Lake Stevens is a No. 2 seed for district, which begins today.

Western Conference North Division co-champion Lake Stevens hosts Jackson (15-5), the Wesco South No. 3 seed, at 1 p.m. in the first round of the double-elimination, eight-team tournament. The top three finishers in the tourney qualify for state.

The 3A and 2A District 1 tournaments also begin today. (See adjacent schedule).

All of today’s 4A district first-round games start at 1 p.m. North No. 1 seed Marysville-Pilchuck (17-1) hosts North No. 4 Stanwood (8-9). M-P, which swept two games against Stanwood at the start of the season, is ranked No. 3 in Class 4A. The Tomahawks tied Lake Stevens for first place in the division but M-P received the top district seed thanks to a spring sports preseason draw.

M-P and Lake Stevens are two of three state-ranked teams in the 4A district. The other one is Wesco South champion Kamiak (16-4), ranked ninth. The Knights piled up nine straight wins before they lost at 3A Glacier Peak on Thursday. Kamiak hosts South No. 4 Shorewood (13-8) today.

The other 4A district first-round game is North No. 3 Monroe (11-9) at South No. 2 Mountlake Terrace (14-6).

Local coaches agree that this 4A district group is particularly deep and impressive.

“I think it’s exciting,” Lake Stevens coach Rodger Anderson said, noting that this is the deepest local 4A field in recent memory. “We always tell the kids, ‘You’ve got to beat the best to be the best. You’re going to have to face them somewhere down the road if you’re going to make it.’”

“Nobody’s going to walk through this district tournament. You’re going to have to earn your (berth to state),” Marysville-Pilchuck coach Kurt Koshelnik said.

M-P’s game against Stanwood today will be the final contest at M-P’s home field for 13 Tomahawks seniors. Koshelnik said he will start one of those seniors, Matt Cooper, on the mound.

“He gives us a really good chance to be competitive and stay in the game,” Koshelnik said of Cooper, who is 4-1 with a 0.55 earned-run average and 38 strikeouts in 252/3 innings pitches this season. “He’s been waiting for this.”

The M-P versus Stanwood winner advances to a winner-to-state game against today’s Monroe-Mountlake Terrace winner at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Everett Memorial Stadium. In the other half of the bracket, the Jackson-Lake Stevens winner and the Shorewood-Kamiak winner meet for a winner-to-state clash at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Everett Memorial.

Multi-talented sophomore Dylan LaVelle (6-0, 1.60 ERA) will be Lake Stevens’ starting pitcher today, coach Anderson said. In addition to his dominance on the mound, LaVelle, also a shortstop, is batting .522 with eight home runs, nine doubles and 38 runs batted in.

Even though it’s a No. 1 seed, Kamiak has a tough opening matchup against a pitching-rich Shorewood squad that blasted Kamiak 12-2 in late March.

“They’re probably the best No. 4 (seeded) team in the state,” Kamiak coach Steve Merkley said.

Shorewood has several talented pitchers. Merkley said he expects the Thunderbirds to start junior Blake Snell, a 6-foot-4 left-hander. Snell is ranked No. 5 in Baseball Northwest’s Class of 2011 state prospects list.

Kamiak, meanwhile, sends unbeaten senior Andrew Groves to the mound. Groves (8-0, 1.89 ERA, 61 strikeouts and 12 walks) is also Kamiak’s leadoff hitter and has 13 stolen bases.

“He’ll (pitch) well,” Merkley said. “We’ve just got to give him some runs.”

Mike Cane: mcane@heraldnet.com. Check out the prep sports blog Double Team at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/doubleteam.