Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal Archive Edition

            The Mount Si Wildcats baseball team appeared to be down and out late in their game yesterday, trailing 7-3 and likely on the verge of having their 11-game winning streak come to an end. But, if there’s one team that is built for the dramatic, it’s this one. And what they did yesterday was simply that, dramatic.

            The Wildcats rallied to tie the game, then with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, senior Justin Henak, he of an 0-4 day leading up to his at-bat, singled to score the winning run from third and give Mount Si a heart-stopping 8-7 win over the Mercer Island Islanders that now puts the Wildcats firmly in the drivers’ seat for a Kingco regular season title, and #1 seed to the Kingco Tournament. Dustin Breshears went 3-3 with a homer and 3 RBI’s while Max Brown went 3-4 with two runs.

            “We overcame everything,” said Mount Si coach Elliott Cribby. The sail’s never deflated and there’s no panic button on this team because this is an explosive team just waiting to happen.”

            MI opened the game with two runs in the first off Wildcat starter Reece Karalus. A double by David Oppenheim scored Jordan Richartz, then a single by Cameron Ogard scored Oppeneheim. The Islanders loaded the bases with one out, but Karalus struck out both Brian Higgins and Alberto Gonzalez to end the threat, allowing the Wildcat bats to go to work, which they did right away. Breshears’ homer led off the bottom of the first and came on a 1-0 pitch from MI starter George Jiranek. The Wildcat infielder said preparation was key. “During warm-ups, he (Jiranek) was throwing a lot over the plate, so we needed a momentum booster, so I was looking for one over the plate that I could drive and I got one and I put a good swing on it,” Breshears said. It remained 2-1 Islanders until the third.

            In the bottom of that frame, Henak came to bat with none out and both Breshears and Ryan Atkinson on base. During the course of that at-bat, Breshears attempted to steal second and Jiranek got the ball to his infielders who ultimately picked off the Wildcat senior, but Mount Si protested that Jiranek’s move to get the ball to his infielders was a balk. Umpires did not agree with that assessment, setting off a less than pleased response from the Wildcat dugout and fans. Still, Henak got the job done, hitting a grounder to short which scored Atkinson and tied the game 2-2.

            The Wildcats took the lead in the fourth on a sac fly by Nate Sinner which scored Brown, who had reached base on a double. MI re-took the lead in the fifth, as Ogard doubled to score both Richartz and Oppenheim, then scored three more times in the sixth, with the key blow being a Richartz double to center which scored two more runs and was aided by the sun; Brown had difficulty finding the fly ball in the sun and it landed well to his right.

            That’s when the Wildcats woke up. Following that big at-bat, Shane Dixon came in to relieve Karalus on the mound and shut down the MI bats. Then the Wildcat offense woke up. Brown singled, then stole second. Dixon doubled to score Brown, then advanced to third on a Sinner groundout. Besmer singled to score Dixon, Atkinson singled, then Breshears doubled to score Besmer and Atkinson to tie the game. Fans on both sides got on the edge of their seats.

            Dixon slammed the door shut in the seventh, then Jiranek, despite a couple of well-hit balls to center by Trevor Lane and Tim Proudfoot, did the same to the Wildcats in the bottom of the frame. A double by Phil Pugel opened the eighth in the Islanders, raising their hopes, but Dixon retired the next three hitters, setting up the dramatic finish in the bottom of the stanza. Sinner led it off with a double, then Besmer popped up to MI’s catcher on a sacrifice bunt attempt for out one. Atkinson singled to put two runners on at first and third.

To Mount Si coach Elliott Cribby’s credit, he held Sinner at third despite the possibility of a double play which resulted. Breshears was walked, ostensibly because MI figured Henak, who had struck out twice as part of his 0-4 day leading up to his at-bat, was going to be easy pickings. The Wildcat DH had other ideas, lining a single to center which scored Sinner to keep the win streak alive. Henak stayed relaxed. “I just realized if I’m going to tighten up, I’m probably going to make a mistake, so why be all stressed out,” he said.

“We were thinking about pinch-hitting Henak,” Cribby said, “but I have a lot of confidence in the guys and I feel that if you pull him out of the game in a tight situation like that, it tells him you don’t have confidence, so there was no question in my mind that Justin Henak was going to step up to the plate and win it for us.”

The team will not rest on its laurels. “We’ve gotten a lot of credit and the guys deserve the credit, but there’s one thing here is we will not stop working until we’re finished,” Cribby said.