Mavericks take fourth place at state

SEATTLE

Of the four teams to advance to the Class 3A state baseball semifinals, Meadowdale was the only one to have a regular season record below .500.

But the Mavericks certainly demonstrated that they deserved to be considered among the elite teams in the state despite finishing the postseason with a pair of losses.

Meadowdale was edged 2-1 by Bonney Lake in the third-fourth place game May 26 at Safeco Field. The Mavericks lost 9-5 to Auburn in a semifinal contest a day earlier.

That Meadowdale had advanced to the state semifinals and played at Safeco Field was a surprise for many of the players and head coach Bill Hummel.

“It still kind of blows me away. It hasn’t really sunk in that I played at Safeco Field,” said senior pitcher/first baseman Ricky Denham. “It is a pretty amazing event. It’s a good way to end a senior year in high school.”

Nerves seemed to play a significant role in both losses as Auburn and Bonney Lake scored early in both games. The Trojans pushed across eight runs in the first two innings. Meadowdale helped Auburn’s cause with two errors. The Panthers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

The Mavericks were by far the youngest of the four teams with only five seniors. Auburn and Bonney Lake each had twice as large a senior class.

“Many of the younger guys haven’t experienced something this big,” Denham said.

“It was pretty nerve-racking,” junior Teagan Dooley said of playing at Safeco Field.

But once the players got settled in, Meadowdale more than held its own against the competition. The Mavericks rallied for four runs in the sixth and seventh against Auburn and left runners in scoring position in both innings. Meadowdale had the tying run on second base in the seventh against Bonney Lake.

“I think today we started off a little flat kind of like yesterday where we watched a lot of pitches go by,” Denham said of the loss to the Panthers. “We kind of realized just like yesterday we had to get back to the same type of approach we had at the end of districts and regionals where we were being aggressive early and not letting pitchers get ahead. We ended up coming through at the end but fell short.”

The Mavericks have struggled throughout the season with their offense. Meadowdale only had four hits against Bonney Lake and five against Auburn.

“The way we hit today was kind of an example of the way we’ve hit most of the year,” Hummel said of Saturday’s loss. “We’re just not very strong offensively. But good pitching will carry you.”

After giving up eight runs to Auburn in the first two innings, Denham shut out the Trojans the next three innings. Junior Matt Gorman relieved Denham in the sixth and allowed just one run in two innings of work.

“Ricky got settled in. He found all his pitches and put up three goose eggs right in a row,” Hummel said. “I’m very happy with what Matt Gorman did when he came in. He was just lights out. After 8-0, we outscored them 5-1. You just can’t spot a team a lead like that.”

Junior Jake Haight got the start against Bonney Lake and after allowing two runs in the first, he also settled down and allowed no runs until sophomore Chase Anselment took over in the sixth.

Hummel expects Meadowdale to have a stronger offense next year and to still have a solid pitching staff despite the graduation of Denham.

“I think we’re going to continue to improve the next couple of years,” he said. “I think you’ll see some good things from us.”

But filling Denham’s shoes is going to be a tall order for the Mavericks. Meadowdale had great leadership from its seniors, especially Denham, a player Hummel considers irreplaceable.

“He really did a great job in a leadership role, setting the tone of what we expect from our seniors and we, for the most part, haven’t had that the last couple of years,” Hummel said. “So the seniors who are coming back next year know what we expect of them as coaches and how they’re supposed to lead the rest of their teammates.

“I anticipate we’ll continue to have good senior leadership as a result of what this group did.”

The seniors were able to bounce back from a tough slate of regular season games that included last year’s 4A state champion Jackson and Edmonds-Woodway, a 2007 4A state regional qualifier. Meadowdale finished with a 7-9 league record but was 14-13 overall.

The Mavericks limped into the district playoffs, having lost five straight league games.

But Meadowdale regrouped and responded with five straight victories, including a pair of shutout wins over Seattle Prep and Franklin Pierce in the regional tournament.

“We play in a strong league and it helps us in the postseason,” Hummel said. “It’s hard for us to come out with a good regular season record. We are seasoned at that point.”

Districts was where the Mavericks really started to come together.

“Something just clicked,” sophomore catcher Roger O’Neill said. “We got things rolling there in the first game. We had great pitching performances.”

The players came into the season with high expectations but not too high.

“We had no idea that we were going to go this far,” Anselment said. “No one expected us to go into districts and win and keep winning at regionals.”

Added O’Neill, “I don’t think it even registered that we could be playing at Safeco Field. The season just went where we took it. We just started winning ball games when we needed to and here we are.”

No one also expected Meadowdale to put up much of a fight after falling behind 8-0 to Auburn.

A two-out rally in the bottom of the second boosted the Mavericks’ spirits. Senior Cameron Allen doubled to center field and then scored on a single to left field by Dooley. The Trojans added a run in the sixth to take a 9-1 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth, Denham led off with a single and advanced to second when junior Eric Secrist drew a walk. Auburn pitcher Blake Webster then retired the next two batters before issuing a walk to freshman Taylor Brennan. Two subsequent throwing errors allowed Denham and Secrist to score as Meadowdale cut the deficit to 9-3.

The Mavericks drew three straight walks to open the seventh. Auburn then replaced Webster with Colton Brown, who got a pair of outs before a pop fly by O’Neill dropped in right field to score Anselment and Chris Johnson to cut the Auburn lead to 9-5. Brown then struck out the next batter to seal the victory for Auburn, which went on to lose to Issaquah 7-3 in Saturday’s championship game.

After falling behind 8-0, Hummel told his players that they needed to make a decision on whether they were going to compete for the rest of the day.

“I told them after the game I couldn’t have been more proud of the way they came out and battled after that,” Hummel said. “I think we came off the field with our heads held pretty high. This was as good or better than any team that we’ve seen all year long. After a nervous 15 minutes, the first 15 minutes, we played right with them.

“My hat’s off to them, but we don’t fear anybody. We’ll step up and play with anybody.”

Auburn, the Class 4A runner-up from a year ago, came into the semifinals as a nationally ranked team but its notoriety didn’t affect Meadowdale’s preparation for the game.

“We just thought of them as another team,” Dooley said.

If anything, the Mavericks came into the game thinking they might have an advantage since Friday’s 10 a.m. start was the team’s third 10 a.m. game in three weeks.

It didn’t turn out that way.

“The biggest advantage they had was that they played here last year and it showed up in the first inning,” Hummel said.

Bonney Lake, the only team to beat Auburn during the regular season, also jumped on Meadowdale early with the big blow being a two-RBI single by junior Cody Resser in the top of the first inning.

Pitching dominated on both sides until the bottom of the seventh. Gorman hit a two-out single to center field. Anselment followed with a double to center to score Gorman for the Mavericks’ lone run.

With the bulk of the team returning next year, Meadowdale would like to make another run at state.

“I think we have a bright future,” O’Neill said. “We’re going to be one year bigger and stronger. Hopefully, we’ll be a force to be reckoned with next year as well.”