Streak Over, But Dream Still Alive -- Chaffey Baseball Focuses On Winning Regional Tourney

The Streak is over, but Redmond's Chaffey Baseball Club heads to bigger - and, it hopes, better - things this week in Long Beach, Calif.

The Senior Babe Ruth team that won its first 43 games this summer was to leave this morning for the four-team Western International regional tournament at Long Beach State University.

It opens the double-elimination tournament at 5 p.m. tomorrow against host Long Beach. Teams from Glendale, Calif., and Orange County, Calif., also are entered in the tourney that sends one qualifier to the eight-team national tournament next week at the same site.

"We've had some years where we lost maybe nine games - 60-9 or something like that," Chaffey Coach Jim Stewart said, "but nothing like this. And we've played some tough teams, holy mackerel!

"I've never been around anything like it, never seen anything like it."

Started 43-0

Led by nine college-bound players and at least five prep seniors-to-be with college-ball opportunities, Chaffey (49-2) went 43-0 before Kent U.S. Bank beat the Eastsiders 2-0 in the championship game of a wooden-bat tournament in Olympia two weeks ago.

"I think it was a monkey off their back," Stewart said. "They were disappointed - not in who they got beat by or that they got beat, but by how they played. Or didn't play."

Until then, Chaffey had made a habit of adjusting to pitchers and ballparks, coming from behind, holding slim leads, doing almost everything right.

The team won five straight one-run games in its toughest tournament of the season, the prestigious 12-team Carson City, Nev., tourney (in which each entry must be a state-tournament champion).

"It was really interesting because the pressure of the number of games they were winning didn't really impact them," Stewart said. "What impacted them was they couldn't go anywhere without everybody talking about it. You never got introduced as a team. You got introduced as, `Chaffey, whatever-and-oh.' "

Chaffey's only other loss came last week against Northshore U.S. Bank, 7-6, a game in which Chaffey committed seven errors.

Team aces chemistry

Stewart is counting on that game being the anomaly in an otherwise incredible season. And hoping the magic of the streak surges through the next two weeks.

"It's chemistry. It's all the kids getting along," Stewart said, describing that magic. "I've never seen or been around anything like this of any magnitude. I didn't think I could win 43 checker games in a row.

"They just did not get shaken up."

A team earned-run average of 1.57 and team batting average of .364 made sure most opponents were well shaken. Chaffey has outscored opponents by an average of 7.3 runs to 1.9.

Led by the hitting of Bellevue High's Steve Curran (.483, 19 doubles, six home runs) and South Kitsap's Willie Bloomquist (.458, 19 doubles, nine triples, three homers, 11 stolen bases) and the pitching of Lindbergh's Dave Riske (11-0, two saves) and Redmond High's Brian Falkenborg (10-1, two saves), this year's team has put together the top record against the toughest competition in Stewart's 17 seasons as Chaffey coach.

Last week, the team also gave its coach his 1,500th coaching victory in 29 seasons.

Nine off to college

"I'm just glad I was able to be a part of it with these kids," Stewart said.

In addition to their stellar on-field stats, Chaffey players have a team grade-point average higher than 3.4.

The nine college-bound players:

-- Lindbergh High pitcher Adam Huxhold (6-0), Oregon State.

-- Lindbergh's Riske (also a .409 hitter), who will return to Green River Community College for his sophomore season.

-- Woodinville High third baseman Ryan Lentz (.410, 14 steals two months after returning from a major knee injury), Washington.

-- Kent-Meridian second baseman Travis Knight (10 steals), Gonzaga.

-- First baseman Curran, Washington State.

-- Kentwood outfielder Chris Lemon (team-leading 18 steals), Nevada (Reno).

-- Eastlake catcher Jeff Sakamoto, University of Puget Sound.

-- Mercer Island outfielder/third-baseman Scott Rye, Hawaii or Edmonds CC.

-- Eastside Catholic infielder Ben Powell, Central Washington.

Winning takes care of itself

"You can't lose sight of why you're here," Stewart said of the summer program that emphasizes grades and college opportunity. "That you continue to develop as a player and person, first. Then winning takes care of itself. The friends and relationships you develop next. And if you stay in that sequence, the program will always be successful."

Besides Falkenborg and Bloomquist, a shortstop, other key Chaffey contributors who will be seniors this fall include Kentridge pitcher Josh Legasse (7-0, six saves), South Kitsap pitcher Jason Ellison (6-0) and South Kitsap catcher Ryan Smith (.410).

An impressive coaching staff includes former Green River CC coach Ray Walker (who works with catchers, outfielders and hitters), former Husky pitcher Jamie Day (pitchers), Seattle Mariner General Manager Woody Woodward (infielders) and former major-league pitcher Ron Romanick (works with pitchers in the fall).