Your first look at Mount Si baseball’s opening round state playoff opponent
Saturday, Mount Si’s baseball team will embark on a mission they haven’t embarked on since your editor was a high school senior – and baseball team student manager – back in 1997. Mount Si will play in the opening round of the state 3A baseball tournament, and their opponent will be a tough one.
Mount Si has drawn the #3 seed from the West Central/Southwest District tournament, and that is the Timberline Blazers, from Lacey. Game time on Saturday is 1:00 p.m. They have a website, it is here. Timberline comes in ranked #6 in the Seattle Times’ latest high school poll, with a record of 20-3. They beat Auburn Mountainview to claim the #3 slot out of the SW/WCD Saturday, and boast maybe as strong a pitching staff as Mount Si’s threesome of juniors Trevor Lane, Trevor Taylor and Reece Karalus. The Tacoma News Tribune did a story on the Blazers’ trio of seniors Ben Smith and Colin McCusker and junior Charlie Hinson, this is here. A separate TNT piece on Timberline’s district game with Wilson is here, pointing out that their offensive is also really good, too.
Timberline will be making its seventh trip to state; according to their website the last time they were in was 2009. In that 2009 tournament (see WIAA info here) they won their first ever games in state in baseball, beating both Liberty and Bishop Blanchet. Mount Si, on the other hand, will be looking for its first ever win in only its third trip ever to the state tournament; in ’97 Mount Si fell to Capital in a regional semi down in Centralia 6-2. (WIAA info here).
Considering how good both pitching staffs are, we would look for a very tight game yet again, similar to last Friday’s league title game against Lake Washington. Experience could be a factor, as Timberline’s roster is loaded with juniors and seniors. But Mount Si’s seniors are also very experienced players as well, so it could be a wash.
The Seattle Times has put up a thread on their high school sports forum asking fans who they think has the best chance to win the 3A and 4A tournaments, and while most of the posters suggest Shorewood to win 3A, one offered significant praise for Mount Si, suggesting they may be the deepest team of anyone in the state talent-wise. And we are told web visits to Mount Si’s baseball web site have increased a little bit in the last few days, so people around the region are taking notice.
This could be the toughest regional of the four 3A regionals; Enumclaw is also in this regional, and they, too are a top-10 team in the state. So if Mount Si – or Timberline – want to advance out and get to the state semis in Tacoma next weekend, they will have to work hard to get there.
This should be an interesting game on Saturday. Weather is expected to be good, and the winner of this game will play either the Hornets or Meadowdale at 4:00 p.m.
We will preview and pick all three games for you here on Friday at SVSJ, so don’t miss it.
