LONGVIEW — The Everett Trojans capped their best baseball season in nearly half a century Friday night, defeating Pierce College 4-1 to win the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges championship.
The title is Everett’s first in baseball since 1966.
“It’s the best ride I’ve been on,” said Levi Lacey, who took over as the Trojans’ head coach in 2002. “I won a national championship as a player, but that doesn’t compare to this. Twelve years of support from (athletic director) Larry Walker — the ring means a lot for the team and the program from where we started.
“It takes a special group to win a championship, and that’s what we’ve got.”
Everett took advantage of a two-out error to grab a 1-0 lead in the third inning. The Trojans added three more runs in the fourth — Daniel Orr scored on a passed ball, and Everett got RBI doubles from its No. 8 and No. 9 hitters, Rob Ingram and Paul Wilen.
“We took advantage of a couple of mistakes early, but we earned those three runs (in the fourth),” Lacey said. “We have the MVP in the three hole (North Region MVP Max Whitt) and the NWAACC RBI leader in the four hole (Orr), but the seven, eight and nine (hitters) came through today. That’s the epitome of our team, nine guys, those guys stepped up today.”
The 7-8-9 hitters scored three of the Trojans’ four runs and drove in two.
Pierce scored its lone run in the fifth on a wild pitch. Everett ace Gunnar Swanson, who was named the tournament MVP, shut the Raiders out the rest of the way. He allowed just four hits in a complete-game performance. He struck out nine and didn’t walk a batter.
“He just commanded the strike zone with all three pitches and attacked hitters,” Lacey said. “He wasn’t passive, (he) was aggressive.”
Swanson recovered from a mediocre performance earlier in the season against Pierce. The Trojans won the game 12-7, but Swanson gave up six runs on nine hits and didn’t figure in the decision.
“We definitely went back to the notes and researched what pitches were made,” Lacey said. “Gunnar is a great guy for prep. (He) found what mistakes were made and made some adjustments.”
Lacey said he knew at the start of the season the Trojans (39-9) had enough talent to make a championship run possible.
“On paper I did,” he said. “(It was) just a matter of showing up every day. We just bonded together as a team and continued to get better. It wasn’t one guy, it was everybody.”
For the boxscore, click here.
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