MILL CREEK — Jackson baseball coach Kirk Nicholson wants his players to focus on having fun while they’re playing, regardless of whether they’re winning or losing.
“I’m a big believer in getting better every day,” Nicholson said Thursday after his team beat visiting Glacier Peak 7-2. “That’s the pressure here, not winning every game. I want them to enjoy their high school baseball experience. I’ve got great kids. I’ve got great kids every year. Why would I want to make things tougher on them?”
The Timberwolves had fun Thursday. In the third inning Jackson scored five runs, more than enough to win thanks to the sterling effort turned in by ace hurler Jacob Bogacz.
Bogacz, who has signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Northern Colorado, struck out eight batters in six shutout innings, giving up three hits and walking three. The right-hander features a fastball that usually sits between 87 and 89 miles per hour and a sharp-breaking slider.
“I want to try to improve for (the college level),” Bogacz said. “I need better command of my slider, and I want to get my velocity up a bit. I’ve always been pretty decent with (fastball) command because I practice so much.”
Jackson (4-2 overall, 1-0 Wesco 4A) turned in a solid 2016 campaign, but fell short of the 4A state playoffs.
“That hit us hard. We knew we were better than that,” said Timberwolves outfielder Carter Booth, who reached base three times Thursday. “We all remember that feeling. It lit a fire under us. We want to get to state. It’s looking like we’ll have a well-rounded team. Our lineup can smack the ball, and we’ve got speed; we should have a lot of stolen bases. And we’ve got a lot of pitchers that can execute pitches.”
Glacier Peak (3-3, 0-1) was undone Thursday by its five errors, a defensive performance that surprised Grizzlies coach Bob Blair.
“Defense is one of our strengths,” he said. “Five errors for us is an an anomaly. That shouldn’t happen again.”
Sean Peterson and Justin Jones each tallied singles and scored runs in the seventh inning for Glacier Peak.
The Grizzlies tied for the Wesco 3A South title last season and advanced to the 3A state tournament. Glacier Peak returns an almost-hard-to-believe total of 18 seniors.
“They’ve played together for a long time. They know each other well and get along with each other,” Blair said. “We’ll be fine. We just try to pace ourselves and play our best baseball in April and May.”
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