Wildcats baseball opens league with hard-fought win, 4-7-11
Mount Si’s baseball team battled a little adversity on a couple of fronts yesterday, but the Wildcats survived and took their league opener.
The Wildcats overcame a third-inning hailstorm and a seventh-inning rally by the Bellevue Wolverines to post an 8-5 win over Bellevue which extended Mount Si’s winning streak to five games. Even though they came out on top, Wildcat coach Elliott Cribby was not entirely pleased. “A win’s a win. Yes, it did get hairy there at the end, something I don’t like to see,” Cribby said. Mount Si came into the inning up 8-1 and well on their way to victory, but reliever Travis Hilleary struggled, giving up three runs without getting an out. Fellow reliever Shane Dixon came in and shut the door, but it was not easy.
The bullpen’s struggles almost overshadowed the solid performance of starter Trevor Lane, who went six innings to get the win, giving up just one run while striking out seven. “It’s great. He’s been like this all year. He comes in and throws strikes. He’s got three pitches for strikes and that’s unusual for a high school pitcher,” Cribby said of the junior, who extended his record to 3-0 on the season.
Mount Si broke out to the lead with a four-run first inning. After a Dustin Breshears flyout to center, Robb Lane doubled, followed by a Tim Proudfoot walk. The fourth ball resulting in the walk was a wild pitch, allowing Lane to score from third (Lane had advanced to third on a previous passed ball). Trevor Lane then flied out to center, followed by a Max Brown double which scored Proudfoot. Up came Reece Karalus, and he got to work. “Well, it was a 2-1 count and [the Bellevue pitcher’s] only been throwing curveballs, so I was looking fastball because I [thought] he was going to try and switch it up and get a strike over on me and he threw it right down the middle, [so I] just put a good swing on it,” Karalus said, and the ball he swung at sailed over the left center field fence for a two-run home run, scoring Brown and making it 4-0.
Mount Si extended the lead with a run in the second, then scored three more times in the fifth, the key hit once again being off Karalus’ bat, this time a two-run single which scored Proudfoot and Trevor Lane. Karalus went 2-4 with four RBI’s and Brown went 3-4 with a run and two RBI’s to lead the Wildcats.
Bellevue scored a run in the sixth, then scored three more times in the seventh. A controversial call by umpires on an apparent double play ball which was supposed to end the game allowed two of those Wolverine runs to score; the field umpire ruled a runner safe at first when it appeared to some Mount Si fans that the runner had not reached the base. Dixon however was able to close the door without any more damage, and Karalus hopes his team learned a lesson. “I think we need to learn that we can’t just let up on a team,” the senior said. In addition to the rough seventh inning, Mount Si in the second, third and fourth innings had bases loaded situations offensively, and only mustered the one second-inning run out of those efforts. So the Wildcats clearly have a few bugs to work out, and they will have a chance to do that today.
The Wildcats host the Juanita Rebels in a regularly-scheduled contest (yesterday’s game was a makeup from a postponement Monday). Game time today is 4:30 at Mount Si, then tomorrow at 6:00 at Island Crest Park, the Wildcats and Mercer Island resume their rain and lightning-suspended game from Wednesday. Mount Si will start trailing 3-0 in the second inning and at bat.
