State baseball: EvCo states its case as one of the top Class 2A leagues

Black Hills is still kind of the new high school in town. Without as much history overflowing its trophy cases as older schools, each new success is greeted with enthusiasm by students and staff.

“The Wolf pack comes together when there’s a team on a run,” said third-year baseball coach Todd Venable, whose squad meets North Kitsap (18-3), and its star left-hander Ryan Hecker, in the first round of the Class 2A state tournament at 1 p.m. Saturday at Auburn High School.

When Black Hills (14-8) edged rival Tumwater, 10-9, for its third consecutive win last month, the players dyed their hair blonde in show of solidarity. When the streak reached seven victories in a row, principal Dave Myers vowed to join them if they qualified for state.

After an 11-7 win over Centralia in the 2A Southwest District tournament vaulted the Wolves into state playoffs, Myers made good on his promise, having his locks publicly dyed during the school day.

“We’re really excited to have a chance to make history, to do things that haven’t been done here before,” Venable said.

Black Hills is making only its second state appearance in program history. The Wolves dropped a first-round contest to Anacortes two years ago.

While Black Hills has just recently gotten into the act, its league, the 2A Evergreen Conference, has long been a bastion of strong baseball.

Two other 2A EvCo teams will open state tournament play on Saturday.

Tumwater (15-5) meets Lynden (19-3) at Auburn High School at 10 a.m., and league and district champion W.F. West (19-2) plays closer to home against Eatonville (18-7) at 1 p.m. at Wheeler Field in Centralia.

“We have one of the toughest leagues in the state,” W.F. West coach Bryan Bullock said. “It speaks a lot about good coaching and the strength of youth baseball in the area.”

Tumwater coach Clay Hill agrees.

“The entire South Sound has a tradition of strong youth baseball,” he said. “Now, with the expansion of club teams and travel ball, kids get a chance to get out of the area and see what it takes to be successful.”

Hill believes that the bad weather that can wreak havoc with high school schedules — as it did this spring — also helps player development. More fundamental work takes place indoors both in-season and during the winter, he said.

“By the time we get them in March, kids are better baseball players, they’re game ready,” Hill said. “There’s more depth. There’s not the disparity so much anymore of one team having that ‘It’ guy.”

That depth translates into great 2A EvCo play.

“No matter who we’re playing, it’s going to be a tough match-up,” Venable said. “Even the non-playoff teams. We beat Rochester three times, but only by a total of four runs. When we get to districts, we’ve already played as hard of opponents as we’re going to see in the postseason.”

None of the three 2A EvCo coaches know too much about their first-round opponents, instead focusing more on preparing their teams for the reality of a single-elimination tournament.

“Baseball is a sport where the team with the most talented players doesn’t always win,” said Bullock, who will send junior pitcher Brandon White to the mound against the Cruisers.

“You really have to approach it (as) not only one game, but one inning, one pitch at a time.”

While Black Hills and Tumwater know they must take a similar approach, an interesting match-up awaits if both the Wolves and T-Birds win in the first round — a fourth meeting this season of the two rivals after Tumwater claimed the regular-season series 2-1.

“That would be an absolute dream scenario,” said Venable, who has settled on junior pitcher Kristian Knight as the Wolves’ starter against North Kitsap.

“We’re going to go up early and root for them. Lots of our kids grew up together before splitting up for high school. We hope they win.”

Hill, whose starting pitcher against Lynden will be senior Logan Chase, sees a practical positive to meeting Black Hills.

“The best thing about it would be it would mean we won our first game,” he said.

This story was originally published May 19, 2017 at 6:15 PM with the headline "State baseball: EvCo states its case as one of the top Class 2A leagues."