Good Saturday morning. Baseball leading it off this morning.
Mount Si High School’s baseball team last night looked to lock up the Kingco 4A title as they hosted Newport. Prior to the game, coaches learned that the Wildcats had won the crown after Issaquah fell to Skyline, but held that back in order to keep the players in a playoff mentality. But something happened on the way there – a tough opposing pitcher.
Knight hurler Milton Ginsberg was dealing and was dominant just the same, throwing 6 2/3 strong innings and leading the Knights to a 2-1 win over Mount Si in a crisply-played game that ran under two hours at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie. Ginsberg allowed just one run on only four hits, walking two and striking out three as the junior matched Wildcat senior ace Jake Smith pitch for pitch in this one. Smith for his part worked six solid innings, allowing two unearned runs on three hits striking out five.
Mount Si coach Brent Lutz credited Ginsberg. “He pitched a gem. He threw us well he kept us off balance, and hats off to him, he shut us down,” Lutz said.
Newport’s two runs came in the second. After Kenji Price walked to open the frame, Jonah Turner hit a routine ground ball to the right side which was misplayed by Wildcat first baseman Alex Chamberlain, putting two runners on base. After Smith struck out Jace Rainey, Jordan Wu came up and made no mistake, hitting a single up the middle to score both baserunners and put the Knights ahead. It was then Ginsberg’s show the rest of the way, as he limited Mount Si offensively. Blake Miller homered for the Wildcats in the seventh, but scarlet and gray could not do anything else beyond that.
“He threw me a slider, I kind of stuck my bat out and lucky enough, I just got a hold of it and it went out…over the net,” Miller said of his solo shot, which as noted cleared the high net above the left field fence and ended up in the parking lot beyond that point. Harrison Kelly then singled with two outs to force Newport to bring in reliever Tad Turner to get a one-out save, and he did just that, getting the ‘Cats Ryan Gerlitz to line out to second base to end the game. For Gerlitz, his four years as part of the Mount Si program have been, as many of you know, full of tremendous adversity – beyond the COVID shutdowns that cost him much of his sophomore and junior seasons, he battled cancer as a freshman then lost his mom to that awful disease just earlier this season. His battles have been made easier by having a strong support structure, both from within his inner circle and the larger community outside it.
“I think it all boils down to, first off, the support from my family. I’m surrounded with great people, my friends and as well as my community, it’s definitely made the process a lot easier. I’ve never felt at any point I was alone in it,” he said. “I think I’m very lucky to have that.”
Fellow senior Jack Berg has also battled additional adversity during his four years with the Wildcats. The pitcher, also in addition to the COVID shutdowns, has had to battle back from so-called “Tommy John” ligament replacement surgery, a procedure he had over a year ago now. He credited the MSHS coaching staff with helping him through this process. “First thing I just want to thank all the coaches, because without them I wouldn’t be the person, the player I am today and they’ve helped me so much through having Tommy John,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a better program to play for.”
Mount Si, Eastlake and Issaquah ended up in a three-way tie for the top spot, but because the Wildcats swept the season series from the other two teams they earned the league title and top playoff seed to the WesKing tournament. They will next play the winner of a play-in game next Saturday at 1:00 p.m. at Bellevue’s Bannerwood Park. Lutz says the team will be ready. “We’re going to have a great week of practice, get better and work to get better every day and go scout that (play-in) game and see what we’re facing.” This play-in game will pit Bothell, the Kingco’s sixth seed, against the Wesco’s third seed, which either will be Kamiak or Glacier Peak (that will not be known until later today following Kamiak’s regular-season Wesco game with Lake Stevens). It will be at 4:00 next Thursday afternoon at Everett Memorial Stadium with the winner advancing to face the Wildcats next weekend.
Mount Si JV bats run into dominant pitching: Newport JV pitcher Steve Herr fired a complete game three-hitter as the Knight JV blanked the Wildcat JV 3-0 last night at Newport High School in Bellevue in the season finale for both squads. Colin Fraser’s double was the big hit of the game for Mount Si, who finished the season a strong 16-3.
College note
Mount Si alumnus does something special on big stage: It was a special night this past Thursday for catcher Clayton Waltz. The University of Puget Sound senior catcher, from North Bend, homered over the fence at the Tacoma Rainiers’ minor-league stadium, Cheney Stadium in Tacoma, and led the Loggers to a blowout win over their arch-rivals from Pacific Lutheran University.
Waltz’s homer was part of a three-hit effort – he also doubled – to lead UPS to the 13-3 blasting of PLU in the rivalry clash inside the field that serves as the home for the Seattle Mariners’ top minor-league team. He closes out his career this weekend with a pair of games at home in Tacoma.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 