State champs: Jackson takes baseball title
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, May 27, 2006
SEATTLE – Even before its season began, Mill Creek’s Henry M. Jackson High School baseball team openly shared its ultra-lofty goals: To go undefeated and win the program’s first state championship.
No pressure, right?
But on Saturday night at Safeco Field the Timberwolves successfully turned those grand aspirations into reality and affirmed their place in history as possibly the state’s best prep baseball team ever.
Junior pitcher Geoff Brown allowed one unearned run in five-plus innings and hit a two-run home run – the first homer of his prep career – to lift Jackson (27-0) to a 7-1 triumph over the Auburn High School Trojans (24-4) in the Class 4A state tournament final at the Seattle Mariners’ ballpark.
“It’s a dream come true,” Jackson senior Travis Snider said. “In a park like this with a team like this … . (Players) one through 18, our entire team contributed.”
Jackson, ranked No. 2 in the nation by Baseball America magazine, is the county’s first 4A baseball champ since Snohomish won it in 1998.
Guided by first-year head coach Alan Briggs, Jackson fought off a few pesky challengers throughout the season, but the T-Wolves overwhelmed the competition. They out-scored opponents 297-42.
“Personally, I think this is the best group of (high school baseball players) that’s ever come out of Washington,” said Jackson junior Kawika Emsley-Pai.
