SHORELINE — The Mountlake Terrace baseball team came into Tuesday’s game with Shorewood in desperate need of a victory.
The Hawks were coming off a disappointing week in which they were swept by district rival Edmonds-Woodway and then pummeled by the Thunderbirds 14-0 in the opening contest of the two-game series.
A second straight loss to Shorewood would have put a significant dent in Mountlake Terrace’s postseason prospects.
The Hawks turned to junior Jeremy Klippenstein, who responded with the best performance by a Mountlake Terrace pitcher all season.
Klippenstein scattered five hits in a complete-game effort to lead the Hawks to 7-2 victory over Shorewood in a Western Conference 4A South Division clash at Shorewood High School.
“It was a huge win for us,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Andrew Watters. “We’re staying in the playoff picture.”
The victory moved the Hawks into a tie with Shorewood for fifth place in the division, one game back of Everett. Only the top four teams advance to the Northwest District 4A playoffs.
Klippenstein’s complete game was the first of the season for the Hawks. Shorewood had baserunners in five out of the seven innings but Klippenstein was able to record the outs when he needed to.
“He threw strikes and he stayed ahead of the batters all day, which was what he needs to do,” Watters said. “He also did a great job of keeping the ball down, which has been a problem for all our pitchers all year … this was real big for our team that he stepped up and pitched like that.”
Shorewood was kept off balance with a variety of pitches.
“I was mixing up my pitches,” Klippenstein said. “I could throw my changeup for strikes. That’s a key for me and just being able to keep a good mix kept the hitters off balance.”
Shorewood grabbed a 2-0 lead in the second inning, taking advantage of a couple of Mountlake Terrace errors.
The Hawks scored two runs in the third and then added a run in the fourth off a balk.
The sixth inning was when the Hawks did most of their damage, scoring four runs. Nate Nicholson drove in two runs with a single to center field and Blair Haverstraw and Bryan Barnes each added RBI singles.
Shorewood also helped Mountlake Terrace out by misplaying a ball in the outfield and hitting one of the Hawks’ batters.
“We’ve been pretty scrapped on offense all year and we’ve kind of scored in bunches,” Watters said. “We’ve found ways to get those runs in.”
The Hawks met Monday to try and put last week’s losses behind them.
“We got together as a group and we started talking about what we needed and what we needed to expect from our team,” Klippenstein said. “Our leaders just stepped up …we put it together. It was a good team effort.”
On the bus ride over to Shorewood, the players were feeling loose even though they knew the importance of the game.
“We were just chattering it up,” Klippenstein said. “We were having fun. That’s what you’ve got to do. You can’t be too serious. You’ve got to come out here and play and have fun. Our team did.”
It’s clear to everyone that in order to make the playoffs, Mountlake Terrace needs more wins. This week the Hawks have a two-game series with Jackson, a team ahead of them in the standings, and then wrap up the regular season next week with a two-game series with Mariner.
“If our pitching can come through and we can play solid defense, we’ve got a chance to do something,” Watters said. “But we’re running out of time.”
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