Root.
Root, root for the home team.
Once you’ve done that, you might want to root just one more time because the Spartans seem to be on a roll.
The Bainbridge High varsity baseball team closed out a phenomenal regular season with a 10-0 shutout victory at home against Chief Sealth Monday, May 5.
The critical, late-season win came on the heels of another shutout against Seattle Preparatory only days before, and secured for Bainbridge the number two spot in the Metro Mountain Division.
The team’s conference record stands at 12-2, with an overall season record of 15-2.
Spartan Head Coach David Smart remained guarded in his optimism earlier this week, saying that no matter how good a team is playing there was always room for improvement.
“We got a couple of wins here to finish out the year,” he said. “I thought we swung the bats pretty well. We’ve been focusing on the approach at the plate, making sure we’re in the right mindset when we have the opportunity to swing the bat. ‘Approach’ is the key word.”
Monday’s game saw pivotal offensive contributions by three Spartan sluggers: Duncan McCombs, Max Thomas and Dylan Vchulek.
Thomas managed, in his three at bats, two hits, one run and two RBIs.
Vchulek finished the game with two at bats, two runs, one hit and one RBI. He also managed one stolen base.
McCombs proved even speedier on the field and successfully stole two bases. He also completed one at bat, two runs, one hit and one RBI.
Earlier in the season, Smart made reference to the importance of the team “peaking” at the right point in time.
“I think we’ll know when we peak, and I don’t think we’re there yet,” he said. “I think we can be better than we have been. There are always things in every game that we can clean up and do better.”
Smart said that often the Spartan victory comes from one particularly strong aspect of the team’s performance, and even if other areas are not completed as well the players help each other to compensate.
“We haven’t been our best, we haven’t played a complete game yet,” Smart explained, using the previous game against Seattle Prep as an example.
“Duncan [McCombs] was stellar, he threw a great game,” he said. “We had a couple of errors behind him, though. The great thing about this team is that it seems that there’s always somebody there to pick the other guy up.”
Monday’s game also marked Senior Night for the BHS team.
“It’s been a really good year for our seniors,” Smart said. “This is the first group that they’ve been with me all four years, the entire length of my tenure these guys have been there. The toughest part for me, coming in, was getting everybody on the same page with the same expectations. These kids have been pushed, they want to succeed, they understand the opportunity and they’ve been good leaders. I can’t say enough about them.”
Both Smart and the assisting coaches agreed that Sam Tiffany had improved the most of any player on the team, and that the had contributed greatly to this season’s successes.
“We now have everybody in the program on the same page and understanding what our goals are,” Smart said. “It’s not enough to win one time and it’s not enough to go and have one good season. We want to be a perennial contender [and] we should always be at the top of the Metro standings.”
With playoffs beginning on Saturday in Seattle, Smart said that the most important thing for the team to do now was maintain their focus.
“We just need to be prepared for anything,” he said. “Anybody with a good pitcher can get you on any given day, and there are a lot of good pitchers in Metro. We have the ability to beat every team in the league. There’s nobody out there who I feel like can get by us.”
