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Saints baseball seeks first conference title in over 15 years
The Advocate
The MHCC Saints head into this weekend's NWAACC tournament looking to bring home their first title since 1993.
The four-day tournament takes place in Longview, Wash., at Story Field, home of the Lower Columbia Red Devils. Defending champions Bellevue ranked first in the final Alaska Airlines coaches poll, followed by Pierce, Everett CC ranked third and Saints coming in fourth. Mt. Hood took on the top seed out of the East Region Columbia Basin (19-9 in league play; 25-21 overall) Thursday at 4:35 pm.
With a win, the Saints will move on to play the winner of the Everett-Lower Columbia matchup Friday at 7:35 pm.
Everett finished 19-5 as the number two seed from the North Region with a 30-10 overall record.
Tournament host Lower Columbia ended the regular season 18-6 as the West Region's second seed to go along with it's 29-13 overall record.
With a loss, however, Mt. Hood will play the loser of that game Friday at 12:35 pm. Mt. Hood takes one of the hottest streaks heading into the tournament, as they have notched 32 wins in their final 37 games, behind clutch work on the mound and timely hitting.
Freshman Shea Coates takes his team leading .372 batting average into the tournament hoping to stay hot. Sophomore Taylor Williams is right behind Coates, hitting .351 in conference with a team leading two home runs.
Williams is also the ace of a strong pitching staff, sporting a 1.07 ERA as well as being only one of three pitchers in conference with a record of 6-0.
Sophomores Isaac Henslee and Riley Barr each contributed three wins, as well as Freshmen Eric Huson and Zev Egli, with Egli posting a 0.93 ERA.
The Saints lead the NWAAC in wins by starters with 23, and were third in the conference in ERA with a team earned run average of 1.84. Sophomore Christian Bannister anchors the Saints staff with 16 saves, one more than he had last season, with a 0.78 ERA, adding 37 strikeouts in 23 innings of work this season. Columbia Basin features several pitchers who could present problems for the Southern Region champion Saints.
Sophomores Arturo Reyes (6-1, 2.42 ERA), Jon Rapose (7-5, 3.22 ERA) and Nico Lytle (3-2, 3.65 ERA) are among the likely starters that could take the mound Thursday evening. Playing a pair of games earlier this season, the Saints swept the Hawks with a 3-2 win in game one, and earning an extra inning victory 4-2 in 11 innings.
The double-elimination action started yesterday as a the champion of the tournament will be crowned Monday, May 28. Early tournament results were unavailable by production.
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