T-birds beat Edmonds-Woodway, clinch league title

SHORELINE

As a light rain spattered Cole Clerget in the second inning, he took a big swing and lost his grip. The bat, suddenly an aluminum missile, zipped out of Clerget’s hands toward his dugout, startling teammates and coaches.

Fortunately for Clerget and the Shorewood High School baseball team, they didn’t lose their grasp on a long-awaited prize.

Propelled by pitcher Bobby LeCount’s sparkling two-hit, 11-strikeout performance, the Shorewood Thunderbirds drilled the Edmonds-Woodway Warriors 7-0 in a Western Conference South Division game on May 4. By winning the regular-season finale, Shorewood (13-5 Wesco South) earned its first division title since 2001.

“We finally got it,” said LeCount, a senior who after the game recalled getting repeatedly pummeled by older opponents when he started for Shorewood as a freshman. Those days are long gone.

Against Edmonds-Woodway (11-7 South), LeCount effectively used his full arsenal of pitches. He gave up two singles, including one that didn’t leave the infield.

“He basically dominated us. From the beginning he just shut us down,” first-year E-W coach Dan Somoza said, “and we’ve been hitting pretty good so far this year.”

“He threw extremely well,” said Shorewood coach Wyatt Tonkin. “He had good sink to his ball and got some real chopped-down ground balls.”

At the plate, LeCount drove in his team’s first two runs with a double to left field in the second inning. Third baseman Trevor Mitsui and left fielder Thomas Vincent also had two RBI for the Thunderbirds, who earned the South No. 1 seed for the Class 4A District 1 tournament.

Shorewood will play host to North No. 4 seed Snohomish 1 p.m. Saturday in Shoreline. E-W, the South No. 4 seed, will play host to North No. 5 seed Lake Stevens in a district play-in game 4 p.m. Wednesday in Edmonds.

Sophomore pitcher Derek Callahan (3-2) took the loss for E-W, which surprised many this year, including its coach. The Warriors have just three seniors, yet they were in contention for the South championship entering Monday’s game.

“I always have high expectations,” Somoza said, “but they exceeded what I thought we could do.”

Now E-W has a winner-to-districts, loser-out clash versus Lake Stevens. “One game. If we win, we’re in; if not, we’re done,” said Somoza.

That’s a lot of pressure, kind of like what Shorewood’s LeCount said he felt Monday. He knew he could pitch the T-birds to their first league crown in eight years and was nervous. But it didn’t show.

LeCount struck out the first two batters of the game, struck out the side in the third inning and didn’t allow a hit until Joe Lopresti singled with one out in the fourth inning. By then, Shorewood was on top 4-0. It was more than enough offense for LeCount, whose confidence surged as the game went on.

“All I wanted was a couple runs,” the right-hander said, “because I felt like they weren’t going to touch me.”

LeCount’s first three pitches of the game were balls, but he quickly zoned in. He attacked hitters with a variety of weapons and had only one walk in seven innings.

“Once I got my fastball established, I pretty much had my changeup, my splitter and curveball,” LeCount said. “They couldn’t really adjust to it.”

Mike Cane writes for The Herald in Everett.