Terrace’s Theis shuts down Shorewood

SHORELINE

Pitching and defense have propelled Mountlake Terrace to the top of the baseball standings and they lifted the Hawks to a 5-0 victory over Shorewood in a Western Conference South Division game April 8 at Shorewood High School.

Senior pitcher Jake Theis pitched a four-hit shutout as the Hawks improved to 6-0 in the league and 7-3 overall. Theis, who struck out three, allowed only one hit in the last five innings.

“Jake got stronger as the game went on and our defense held up,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Andrew Watters. “We made some real key plays in that game to support Jake defensively and I think that was the difference. We kind of grinded out one there.”

Center fielder Jacob Mann dove to make a catch to record the third out in the second inning and shortstop Garrett Totten made several key plays to keep the Thunderbirds off the basepaths.

“I just threw the ball low and got outs,” said Theis, a first-team, all-league pitcher. “I have a great defense, the middle infield especially. I had a lot of ground balls and they made nice throws.”

Theis had to survive a somewhat rocky first inning in which the Thunderbirds had two hits and runners on second and third with one out.

Shorewood’s J.K. Dykes led off with a single to center field. After Theis struck out the next batter, Daniel Hammer stroked a pop fly that fell in for a single in right field. Hammer took second on the throw to third base. Theis then retired the next two batters to end the inning.

Shorewood coach Wyatt Tonkin wasn’t happy at his team’s lack of offensive execution.

“At the beginning of the season we hit the ball real well,” Tonkin said. “I don’t know where it’s gone now. That’s two games in a row we get to second and third and we can’t score in the first inning and let the momentum flip back to them.”

Mountlake Terrace defeated Shorewood 5-2 in an April 5 contest. The Thunderbirds fell to 4-4 and 7-4.

Mountlake Terrace took advantage of some shaky defensive play by Shorewood to score a pair of runs in the second inning. Craig Heath drew a one-out walk and then eventually scored on a pop fly to the outfield that was dropped. Karsten Strieby also got on base when a line drive to the outfield was dropped. Strieby came home on an infield throwing error.

“We kind of gave them six outs there in that inning,” Tonkin said.

Shorewood’s Harrison Torrance led off the second inning with a single to center field but the Hawks cleared the bases quickly when Matt Kovich hit into a double play.

Theis doesn’t get rattled, Watters said.

“I don’t think it was his best outing early on,” Watters added. “Late in the game he was very good. He has very good poise and he’s a senior. He’s a three-year letterman. He’s just got a lot of control of his emotions and he doesn’t let it bother him. He just keeps on pitching and he has a lot of confidence in our defense. I think we were able to make plays to keep those innings in check.”

Mountlake Terrace tacked on a run in the third by taking advantage of a lead-off walk to Totten, who stole second and moved to third on an infield single by Matt Shafer. Totten then scored on a sacrifice fly by Paul Clingan.

Shorewood had runners on base in the third and fourth innings after Theis experienced a little wildness and hit a pair of Thunderbirds.

The Hawks again scratched out another run in the sixth after a leadoff double by Ryan Sells. He advanced to third on a passed ball and then scored when Mark Baeham grounded out to third base. In the seventh, Totten led off with a home run to right field.

“We had a hard time against the lefthander (Alex Kuniyoshi), a hard time getting on,” Watters said. “But when we did get on, we made something of it and we executed some good baseball today. I was happy we were able to get guys around and get them in.”

Mountlake Terrace is playing with a lot of confidence now and Watters hopes the Hawks can keep it up.

“We played a complete seven innings of baseball,” he said. “Since we started league play our defense has really been rock solid and our pitchers have done a great job of throwing strikes. It’s really been our pitching and defense that’s really carried us in all these league games.”