Everett’s North Region dominance continued last weekend as the team completed the season sweep of Shoreline, beginning at home on Saturday.
Freshman right hander Wyatt Queen took the mound to get the weekend started. He worked two scoreless innings before allowing Shoreline to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the third.
The Trojans lineup responded in the bottom of the inning, spurred by a leadoff double from shortstop Axel Puls. Colin Beazizo, Jonah Shull and Keaton Fisher plated three Everett runs with an RBI double, a sacrifice fly and another RBI double, respectively.
With runners on first and third and nobody out in the fourth, Shoreline tied the game as Everett traded the run in exchange for turning a 4-6-3 double play.
The game stayed tied until the fifth, when Fisher picked up his second RBI of the game on a sacrifice fly to give the Trojans a 4-3 lead.
Two batters later, right fielder Isaac Hoag drove a two-run triple that proved to be the difference in the game.
“I was just looking for my pitch to hit,” Hoag said. “I’ve been finding a lot of success at the plate, so I was just staying comfortable, staying relaxed, and playing my game.”
Mason Devinney took over in the seventh, leaving Queen with a final line of six innings, three runs (one earned) on five hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.
Devinney allowed a run in the ninth, but nothing more, and closed out the 6-4 Everett win.
For Head Coach Keith Hessler, Devinney’s ability to pitch in various roles has been crucial to his deployment of the bullpen.
“I know I can go to him in any role and he’s gonna get the job done more often than not,” Hessler said. “It’s good ‘cause he doesn’t care, he just wants to pitch. He doesn’t care if it’s the beginning of the game, end of the game, one inning, five innings, he doesn’t care.”
In game two it was Everett that took an early lead.
The Trojans’ two run first inning set off a frantic back and forth scoring frenzy that saw twelve runners touch home by the time the fourth inning drew to a close. By that time, neither team’s starting pitcher remained in the game and the score was 6-5 in Shoreline’s favor.
The Phins tacked on another run in the fifth, leaving the Trojans offense with work to do.
Fortunately, the bats remained hot. Set up by a walk and single to start the inning, Fisher delivered a game tying double off the wall in right center field.
“There’s not much to it,” Fisher said. “Just doing what I can to make sure the runner gets to the next bag… It’s really just keeping calm, staying relaxed, that’s about it.”
Fisher’s knock was followed by a Micah Coleman sacrifice fly to give the Trojans a lead that they would not relinquish.
Blake Sandvik entered the game in the sixth and, after a single and an error, struck out the next three Shoreline batters.
“Especially coming out of the ‘pen, one run ballgame, my mentality is to throw strikes, get weak contact, try to get quick outs,” Sandvik said. “I don’t try to do anything too fancy.”
After two more scoreless frames from the freshman, Nathan Harb took the mound to close out the game.
The first four plate appearances against Harb produced two walks and two strikeouts, and an infield single followed to load the bases.
Harb bent but didn’t break, and collected another strikeout for the 27th and final out of the game.
“He’s really emerged,” Hessler said. “He’s really come through the last five, six weeks and shown that these close games don’t bother him. It’s just another inning to him.”
With the tiebreaker already secured, the Trojans went on the road Sunday and picked up two more wins for good measure.
The pitching stole the show in both games, with Ethan Hubbell tossing eight innings of two-run (one earned) ball in game three, with nine strikeouts to just one walk. In the process he lowered his team-leading ERA to a miniscule 1.14.
He had plenty of run support as the Trojans took the contest at a score of 6-2.
It got even better in game four, as freshman southpaw Landon Welter put together what was easily his best outing of the season, pitching six scoreless frames with nine strikeouts.
Brandon Brunette followed with two more zeros of his own, striking out five, and Ben Hewitt put the finishing touches on the shutout with a scoreless ninth, securing the 8-0 win.
With the North Region crown and the automatic trip to the NWAC Championship Tournament that comes with it in their sights, the Trojans will look to carry their momentum into next weekend’s series with Edmonds.
“It’s been our theme all year is no quit,” Hessler said. “In order for these guys to get to where we wanna go it falls on their shoulders to play the game the right way. It’s pitching and defense first, and the offense we trust to be there.”