When Baseball Northwest released its 2007 top player lists in January there were nine Snohomish County athletes that made the top 50.
All nine of those players, and the reigning 4A state champion, come from Wesco, which should make for an entertaining, yet competitive upcoming high school baseball season.
Snohomish head coach Kim Hammons has spent 15 years as the head baseball coach for the Panthers and he believes the league is the most balanced he’s ever seen.
“The league is wide-open as all teams are very even this year. The league is the most balanced in my 15 years at Snohomish,” said Hammons, who coaches the No. 39 rated player on that Baseball Northwest list, Nick Hammons.
The North looks especially competitive from top to bottom. Last year’s North co-champion, Monroe (14-2 in division, 16-5 overall) returns a majority of its starters and is a favorite to repeat as division champion with Snohomish (12-4, 18-6) and Marysville-Pilchuck (8-8, 11-11) not far behind.
“Every team returns two or more pitchers that are pretty good and will give their teams opportunities to stay in most, if not all the games,” Hammons said.
Last season the Panthers earned a state berth but were ousted in the first round by Hudson’s Bay and Baseball Northwest’s top prospect Greg Peavey.
“It’s a great league and should be very competitive,” first-year Cascade head coach Scott Stencil said.
In the South, Jackson capped its remarkable undefeated season with a 4A state championship and went into the record books as arguably the greatest team in state history. Jackson had two players drafted in the Major League Baseball draft in June (Travis Snider, No. 14 by the Blue Jays and current University of Washington pitcher Cam Nobles, No. 561 by the Mariners), and finished ranked No. 2 in the country by Baseball America.
This year the goal is no different for the Timberwolves as they retain a good chunk of players off last year’s title team including University of Washington-bound southpaw Geoff Brown, rated No. 9 on Baseball Northwest’s list.
“Our goal of the year is to be in the playoffs and from the playoffs we work on our goals from there,” Jackson head coach Kirk Nicholson said. “One pitch, one inning, one game was our battle cry last season. We never look beyond anybody. We certainly have lofty expectations on ourselves. It was tough last year to do it (win state title), it will be tough for us this year.”
Jackson is once again favored to win the Wesco South but not without some competition from the other eight South teams.
“I think both halves in Wesco are pretty solid. There are a lot of good individual players in both leagues top and bottom and it’s a very competitive league on both halves,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Matt Barker said.
Shorewood and Meadowdale are both 3A teams that should benefit by playing in a mostly 4A South Division.
“Year in and year out this is a very tough conference, deep in talent, with many well-coached teams. I would stack it up against any others in the state. For us as a 3A team in a predominantly 4A league it prepares us well for the high level of competition in the post-season,” Shorecrest coach Alan Bruns said.
The coaches agree this should make for a memorable prep baseball season.
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