By Aaron Swaney
Herald Writer
EVERETT – Consider it a return to dominance for Cascade’s baseball team.
After qualifying for the state regional playoffs six consecutive years (1988-1996) and placing second in state in 1993, the Bruins seemed unstoppable on the diamond. But Cascasde’s supremacy came to an end after 1996 and the Bruins haven’t made the regionals since.
Until Saturday.
The Bruins qualified for regionals by beating Shorewood Thursday. But their ascent to the top of the Western Conference wasn’t completed until Saturday when they battered Kamiak 12-2 in the Class 4A district I baseball tournament championship.
“Sometimes the older (ex-Cascade players) flip some of the younger guys the business,” Cascade coach Jim Willie said. “Hopefully after today the younger kids can feel like they’ve made it.”
With its win over the Knights, Cascade earned itself the District 1 No. 1 seed in next week’s Region I tournament. There, Cascade will face the No. 4 seed from District 3-4 at 11 a.m. Saturday at Everett Memorial Stadium.
Earning the home field advantage could give Cascade a little bit of an edge. The Bruins are 4-0 at Everett Memorial Stadium this season.
“We wanted to play here (Everett Memorial Stadium),” Willie said. “We’re undefeated here so this is like home.”
Cascade, which finished the regular season in fourth place in the Wesco North, not only won the Wesco championship, but in doing so beat the Wesco South No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 seeds.
“Our goal was to play the best at the end of the season,” Willie said. “These kids prepare to win every day, stay focused and are tough mentally.”
And they might have saved their best game for the championship showdown with Kamiak.
On a perfect day for baseball, Cascade jumped all over Kamiak early. Fueled by two Kamiak errors, the Bruins batted around, forced Kamiak starting pitcher Kyle Johnson from the game and scored seven runs in the top of the first inning. Tommy Leon and Corey Sizemore both had two-run singles in the inning.
“We had some timely hits and took advantage of their errors,” Willie said.
After Kamiak scored two runs in the bottom of the third inning, Cascade, led by Blake Snow’s two-run double, rallied in the top of the fourth with four runs of its own.
Cascade tacked on another run in the top of the fifth inning and then got Kamiak to go out in order in the bottom half of the inning, ending the game early because of the 10-run mercy rule.
Bruins’ starting pitcher Aaron Martine went five innings giving up only two runs on three hits, while striking out seven Knight batters to earn the victory.
Martine and McDonnell. Johnson, Tomisser (1), Myers (4), Young (5) and Reed. WP-Martine. LP-Johnson. 2B-Snow (C), Rollins (K). Records-Cascade 14-8 overall. Kamiak 15-7.
Edmonds-Woodway 15, Shorewood 9: Edmonds-Woodway did a fairly good job for a team that wasn’t supposed to even make the district tournament. The Warriors got a couple two-run doubles from Ian Gac to outscore Shorewood for third place and the right to go to the state regionals.
Quealey, Niebruegge (3), McCulloch (5) and Waite. Schomaker, Wilke (4), Forden (6) and Tonkin. WP-Niebruegge. LP-Schomaker. 2B-T. Torgerson (E), Hill (E), Gac 2 (E), McCulloch (E). Records-Edmonds-Woodway 17-7 overall. Shorewood 17-7. |
Shorewood 14, Mount Vernon 13: Shorewood scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to upset the No. 1 team in the state and the Wesco North No. 1 seed. The victory advanced the Thunderbirds into the winner-to-state third-place game. Shorewood’s Kevin Young hit a grand slam in the fourth inning to help the Thunderbirds draw close after falling behind 7-1 in the first.
Schomaker, Young (2), Rezendes (5) and Tonkin. Storrer, Kutz (4) and Sebury. WP-Rezendes. LP-Kutz. 2B-Storrer (M), Adkins (M), Schomaker (S). HR-Young (S). Records-Shorewood 17-6 overall. Mount Vernon 20-3. |
Edmonds-Woodway 4, Snohomish 2: Stanford-bound shortstop Chris Minaker hit a two-run double in the second inning to help give Edmonds-Woodway a 3-0 lead that it never relinquished. Snohomish pulled to within two runs in the sixth inning, but reliever Blake Niebruegge retired the last four Panther batters to preserve the victory and advance the Warriors into the winner-to-state third-place game.
Kees, K. Torgerson (6), Niebruegge (6) and Waite. Lohnes and Adams-Christensen. WP-Kees. LP-Lohnes. 2B-Minaker (E), Bennion (S). Records-Edmonds-Woodway16-7 overall. Snohomish 16-7. |
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