LYNNWOOD
The Edmonds Community College baseball team is coming together at the right time.
The Tritons struggled at the start of league play, losing three out of their first four Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC) games.
But last week, Edmonds made a significant climb up the North Division standings by winning a pair of doubleheaders against Olympic. Edmonds defeated Olympic 6-4 and 16-1 on April 6 and then followed up with 4-3 and 12-4 victories on April 7.
The Tritons improved to 5-3 in the league (14-8 overall) and moved into second place behind Shoreline (5-1, 9-11).
“We’re learning about each other. It’s still early,” said sophomore outfielder David Marks. “I think from here on out though we’re going to come out pretty well and tack on some more wins definitely.”
The Tritons have struggled on offense to start the season.
“We’ve been a little inconsistent with our approach at the plate,” said second-year head coach Hal DeBerry. “That’s kind of the trademark of any team with as many freshmen that we have.”
Edmonds has only 11 sophomores on a roster of more than 30 players. Those freshmen are seeing plenty of action. Every position player played in the Olympic series.
“We’re moving guys around and trying to get these guys as much experience as we can within what the game dictates and allows,” DeBerry said.
DeBerry preaches patience at the plate and he saw glimpses of what he wants.
What was evident to DeBerry was that once one Triton starts connecting at the plate, his teammates tend to follow.
“Hitting is kind of like the flu. It’s very contagious,” DeBerry said. “It seems like we just need that one base hit to get us over the hump and then everybody catches fire.”
The player who tends to get the offense rolling is freshman second baseman Ben Thielsen. The Lake Washington graduate is hitting .417.
“Thielsen has done a great job hitting leadoff for us and getting on base,” DeBerry said. “He takes his walks and sees a lot of pitches. He’s a real prototype leadoff hitter.”
Marks, another Lake Washington alum, was hitting .457 with four home runs and 19 RBI but has been sidelined for the last two weeks due to a pulled hamstring. He has been relegated to a pinch-hitting role.
“He’s still really swinging the bat well even though he can’t run,” DeBerry said.
Marks was among the top 10 league leaders in batting average, home runs and RBI.
The Edmonds offense suffered a serious blow when sophomore Reid Dehnert broke his wrist during a collision in the infield. The Kentlake grad, who had been hitting .386 with 18 RBI, is out for the season.
The Tritons don’t have a lot of power, though freshman Adam Ladwig (West Seattle), sophomore Seth Suplin (Cedar Park Christian) and sophomore Benjamin Lanier hit home runs last week.
“What we try to do is use a gap-to-gap approach and try to hit the ball in right-center, left-center and really try to stay in the middle of the field,” DeBerry said. “We do have some guys that do have some power. … It’s a usable tool, but we just want it to happen, not try to make it happen.”
Nowhere is the lack of experience more apparent than with Edmonds’ pitching staff. The lone sophomore with significant experience is Cameron Litzenberger (Kentwood). The rest of the staff are largely freshmen, who are learning on the fly.
“With learning, there are growing pains,” DeBerry said. “I think our staff is capable of going out there and doing what we need them to do to be successful.”
Litzenberger’s strength is the movement he brings to his pitches. He likes to throw a sinking fastball and slider. Litzenberger is 2-0 with a 0.78 ERA, which was among the 10 lowest in the league.
“He has got one of the best change-ups I’ve seen in 20 years of coaching,” DeBerry added. “He will tend to pitch a little bit more of his offspeed stuff because his slider is very good also. He’s got the fastball almost as a surprise.”
DeBerry noted that freshman pitcher Tyler Rogstad (3-0, 1.33 ERA) lifted Edmonds’ spirits with a complete-game victory to start the four-game series against Olympic.
“He was kind of the story because he kept us in the game,” DeBerry said.
Freshman Oliver Webster (Woodinville) threw a five-hitter. DeBerry liked that Webster (2-1, 3.60 ERA) threw consistently throughout the game
“It’s difficult sometimes to be able to pitch with a big lead,” DeBerry said. “He did a very good job of staying focused on the task and not giving in. It does become difficult for these guys. They get a big lead and then all of a sudden they tend to relax. They let up. … Oliver did a very good job of not letting that happen.”
Marks is impressed by what he’s seen from Edmonds’ pitching staff.
“They’re going to be great for us,” Marks said. “We’ve got some great starters. They’re going to help us go a long way.”
DeBerry sees Edmonds’ success as dependent on its pitching and defense, which seem to be related to each other.
“We can play with anybody in the league,” DeBerry said. “To me the key to the whole thing is we’ve got to pitch and we’ve got to defend and if we do that, that is going to give our hitters a chance to win ball games. When we have done that we have beaten some very good teams. The pitching and defense are kind of linked together. When we don’t pitch well, we don’t play good defense.
“We’ve got to have the consistency with pitching and the defense.”
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