Mavericks wrap up regular season with win

SHORELINE

Clutch hitting lifted Meadowdale to a much-need victory over Shorewood.

Taylor Brennan drove in what turned out to be the winning run with a single to center field in the top of the seventh inning to lift the Mavericks to a 5-4 victory over Shorewood in a Western Conference South Division baseball game April 29 at Shorewood High School.

The win snapped a four-game losing streak and more importantly gave Meadowdale a confidence boost heading into Saturday’s district playoff game.

“Every season has its peaks and valleys,” said Meadowdale coach Bill Hummel. “We had played pretty good, pretty solid baseball for most of the season except for about the last week.”

The downward spiral started after a tough loss to division champion Mountlake Terrace in the second game of a two-game series. The Mavericks were swept by Kamiak and then lost the first game of the Shorewood series.

“All of sudden it was like a 180-degree turnaround,” Hummel said. “We just couldn’t do anything right, especially offensively. So it was good to see some offensive focus come back and to beat a good 4A team like Shorewood.”

Meadowdale took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Andy Lyon singled home Brennan, who drew a leadoff walk. The Mavericks tacked on two more runs in the third as Brennan led off with a single to left field and Chase Anselment doubled to left field to score Brennan. Anselment later scored when Matt Gorman grounded out to the shortstop.

“It’s definitely good to score early,” Hummel said. “We’ve been falling behind and just staying behind for most of the games (we lost). It’s good to get up early.”

Shorewood cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the third. Patrick McAree scored on a single by Bobby LeCount. The Thunderbirds tied the score in the fourth when J.K. Dykes’s single to center field drove in Alex Kuniyoshi and Colin Walker.

Meadowdale then appeared to regain the momentum on a line drive home run to left field by Chris Johnson.

But Shorewood responded with a run in the bottom of the inning. Dykes’ single to left field scored Derek Schaefer and the score was tied at 4. Schaefer stole second but then was picked off by pitcher Roger O’Neill to end the inning.

In the seventh, Meadowdale’s O’Neill led off with a hard grounder to short and was able to beat the throw to first base. Courtesy runner Jeff Askew replaced him. After Teagan Dooley was tagged out by the pitcher, Brennan lined a single to center field to drive in Askew.

“I saw the pitch really well,” Brennan said. “It was a curveball. I stayed back on it. I tried to get it in play to get the runner home. It turned out to be pretty good.”

O’Neill, who relieved Dooley in the fifth inning, picked up the victory.

“I was really pleased to see the effort and the fight from our kids today,” Hummel said. “We haven’t had much fight the last week or so.”

Meadowdale (10-6 in the league, 11-9 overall) plays the Wesco 3A’s No. 5 seed at 11 a.m., Saturday, May 3 in a first-round district playoff game at Sherman Anderson Field in Mount Vernon.

Last year, the Mavericks lost their final five regular season games but then rebounded in the playoffs, eventually finishing fourth in the Class 3A state tournament.

Hummel urged his players to start playing better baseball before the start of the playoffs.

“We just can’t assume that once we get to the postseason we can turn the button on,” he said. “We really needed to play good solid baseball first pitch to last and we got a lot closer to that today.”