Tommies Are Experienced -- Marysville-Pilchuck Loaded With Baseball Veterans

Randy Ayers knows the value of experience.

Ayers had a veteran lineup last season on his Everett High School baseball team, and experience carried the Seagulls to a Western AAA Conference championship and into a regional championship game, where they lost to eventual state champion Redmond.

"In this league, there's no replacing experience," Ayers said. "Some schools, like Cascade or Oak Harbor, can come up with a winning combination every year, but for most schools, you have to have some experienced kids to make a run at it (a league title)."

That experience from last year's Everett team is now in college. Jared Fowler, the team's top pitcher and shortstop, is a catcher at Texas A&M. Catcher Ben Barnes walked on at Colorado State. Ray Coval is a redshirt-freshman at Brigham Young, and second baseman Brett Stevenson is playing for Pacific Lutheran University.

"This year, our one nonconference win was by a freshman (Aaron Cavanaugh), so you can see how things are going," Ayers said.

This season, Ayers figures Marysville-Pilchuck has the experienced edge his squad had last year. The Tommies, who finished tied for second a year ago, knocked off league favorite Cascade 3-1 last night at Marysville.

"This is going to be a fun season," Marysville Coach Kurt Criscione said. "Most of our kids played on the Marysville American Legion team over the summer, and they're pretty excited about the season.

"To me, this is why you coach at this level. This group of kids is the most fun I've had. They're smiling a lot, working hard and having fun."

Comments like that ring true in Ayers' ears.

"That's the way we were last year," he said. "I'd like to have another team like that, but that may be a once-in-a-career combination. I hope we can do that again."

While Ayers rebuilds Everett around all-WesCo AAA center fielder Shawn Nasin and returning shortstop Iain Berger, Criscione looks at his same basic squad from last season.

Pitcher Scott Baklenko, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound senior who went five innings to beat Cascade last night, has so far drawn the most attention from college scouts. Center fielder Jason Crain, a 1,000-yard rusher in football and an all-WesCo AAA outfielder last season, also has drawn attention from scouts.

"The seniors have been leaders right from the beginning," Criscione said. "They truly believe in what they're doing, and I think that's the key."

Cascade has two outstanding left-handed, senior pitchers - Trevor Cobb and Brandon Anderson - to lead a pitching staff that is the deepest in the league.

LAST NIGHT'S GAMES

-- AT MARYSVILLE-PILCHUCK 3, CASCADE 1 - Scott Baklenko and Brandon Schei combined on a two-hitter that sent the Bruins to their first defeat of the season in the WesCo AAA opener for both schools. Center fielder Jason Crain doubled, tripled and drove in a run and catcher Darren Chism doubled and drove in a run to lead Marysville (1-0, 6-1). Baklenko (3-0) pitched five innings for the victory, and Schei struck out four of the six batters he faced to earn the save. Cascade is 0-1, 5-1.

-- AT OAK HARBOR 5, EVERETT 4 - Chris Fleharty doubled with one out in the eight to score the winning run for the Wildcats (1-0, 6-1). Senior Trig Johnson went the distance for the victory, striking out seven. Junior Blair Fowler scattered 10 hits for Everett, striking out six and walking four. Kirk Huddleston, Justin Talmadge and Bradd Fodor all collected two hits for Oak Harbor. Fowler and Jamie Sluys had two hits for the Seagulls (0-1, 1-5) and Jason Hunter had two singles and double in four at-bats.

-- SHOREWOOD 5, AT EDMONDS-WOODWAY 4 - Rich Todd's double off the left-field screen scored the winning run in the ninth inning for the Thunderbirds, who won their first game of the season. The Warriors stole 11 bases and left 13 runners on base by striking out 11 times. The Warriors dropped an easy infield fly in the seventh inning that should have preserved a victory, but instead allowed Shorewood to tie the game.

-- AT MARINER 2, SNOHOMISH 1 - Senior left-hander John Leathart checked Snohomish on seven hits to give the Marauders (1-0, 2-4) the victory.