On to Tacoma: Shorewood Baseball Wins Mount Vernon Regional to Reach 3A Semis

Shorewood was clinging to a 4-3 lead  over Seattle Prep with one out in the bottom of sixth inning in the 3A regional title game Saturday at Mount Vernon's Skagit Valley College. 

That's when senior slugger Trevor Mitsui strode to the plate.

Seattle Prep starter Travis Smith had walked the University of Washington-bound Mitsui in his three previous plate appearances, twice intentionally, and seemed to pitch around him again, running the count to three balls, two strikes.

But when Smith came down the middle of the plate with changeup, Mitsui couldn’t wait—and with one solid stroke the right-handed batter smacked the pitch over the left field wall. Mitsui also hit a home run in the previous game, at Skagit Valley College’s Dream Field, a 3-0 win over West Seattle.

Shorewood went on to win 5-3 and clinched its second straight state semifinal berth berth. They will play Camas at 10 a.m. next Friday at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium with hopes of bringing a title home to Shoreline.

“I know it’s really meaningful,” Mitsui said. “Last year wasn’t a fluke. We’re an extremely solid ball club.”

Shorewood coach Wyatt Tonkin was pleasantly surprised to see Seattle Prep pitch to Mitsui, who he estimated has been walked intentionally more than 25 times this season.

“I was sure hoping they would,” Tonkin said. “Like I’ve been saying all along he’s the greatest high school hitter I’ve ever seen. He does it day-after-day in and out of the clutch and comes up big for us.”

Shorewood starter Henry McAree battled through five innings giving up six hits and three runs, two earned, while striking out three and earned the victory.

Senior Kevin Moriarity, a Gonzaga recruit, who has battled tendinitis in his pitching arm came on  in relief in the sixth with runners on second and third and nobody out and Shorewood up 4-2.

MacLean Harned drove in a run on a RBI groundout—and despite a bad throw, Mitsui, the first baseman, applied a tag on to get a crucial first out.

With Seattle Prep’s Luke Simpson at third, Moriarity needed a strikeout of Tom Ostrander who had singled and doubled already. And on a two-ball, two-strike count he got Ostrander looking with a curveball. Then he coaxed Max Winkelhake into a fly out to center to end the threat. Moriarity retired Seattle Prep in order in the seventh to get the save.

Blake Snell went 3-for-4 with singles and an RBI and Connor McKeever went 1-for-3 with a home run to left in the fifth. Ben Andrews and Jeremy Edwards both singled and scored.

Duncan Hendrickson rapped an RBI single in the first scoring Mitsui with the T-birds first run in the first inning.

Shorewood only scored three runs in the opener against West Seattle, but Snell shut out West Seattle’s offense to get the win.

“We scored runs today, but we didn’t have an extremely good offense today like we did (in an 18-0 win over Meadowdale in the district final),” Mitsui said. “Our pitching kept us in it. Blake, Kevin and Henry were extremely good. It was extremely gutsy for Kevin to go out and relieve the game.”