SNOHOMISH — Glacier Peak High School senior Karsten Sweum was locked in Tuesday afternoon.
In the first game of a three-game Wesco 4A baseball series between the Grizzlies and Jackson, Sweum struck out 14 in 5 2/3 innings pitched and also drilled a home run to right field in the bottom of the second inning, leading Glacier Peak to a 3-0 victory and handing the Timberwolves their first league loss of the season.
“I’ve always felt more confident with two strikes. I just like to be a little bit more competitive on my last strike, death row, that type of thing,” Sweum said about his homer, which gave Glacier Peak a 1-0 lead. “I just saw a good ball and turned on it. I haven’t done that in awhile. It felt good.”
Senior Bode Stevenson added a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the third for Glacier Peak (8-7 overall, 2-2 league), as he brought home junior Lucas Entler, who singled earlier in the inning.
Glacier Peak freshman Emmett Brown relieved Sweum in the top of the sixth and struck out two batters while conceding one hit as he and Sweum combined on the shutout.
“I just felt super focused the whole time,” Sweum said. “I have the best defense behind me, so I don’t really have to worry about runners, balls getting through. I have 100% confidence in my boys. They allowed me to go into a tunnel vision with runners on, so I thank them. The catcher today, Lucas Entler, did a great job calling pitches. We were just dialed in all game.”
Freshman Austin Halvorson pitched six innings with six strikeouts, and junior Hawkeye Delgado tallied a stolen base for Jackson (13-2, 3-1). The Timberwolves’ best scoring opportunity came in the top of the fourth when senior Bryan Ho doubled and sophomore Ashton Bergman laid down a sacrifice bunt to get Ho to third. But with two outs Sweum came up clutch, getting a strikeout to keep the Timberwolves scoreless.
The Timberwolves look to regroup in the final two games of the series.
“(Sweum’s) a great pitcher. He’s really tough to beat. We just couldn’t put balls in play, and we’ve been a great hitting team all year,” Jackson coach Ryan Otto said. “With a runner on third, we were just trying to execute and score the run. … (But), you got to clutch up and get a hit there. You can’t strike out in those situations. … (We’ll) flush this one for sure and have a short memory and just come out clean (Wednesday).”
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