Spartans score 11-0 shutout in baseball home opener

Published 1:42 pm Thursday, March 19, 2015

BAINBRIDGE – The Spartans’ first baseball game of the season was called early due to an excess level of awesomeness of the field.

There was just no working around it.

The varsity team hosted the Port Angeles Raiders Wednesday, and the game was called early – at the bottom of the fifth inning – with the Spartans ahead 11-0.

Bainbridge High Head Coach Simon Pollack, in this, his first year in charge of the varsity team, said that the squad was taking it all in stride for now and staying focused. Getting too excited, or over-confident, this early in the season could be very detrimental, he said.

Still, it’s hard not to get a little stoked when you run the numbers:

Twelve of the team members are seniors, most of them returning players with state tournament-level experience.

In this, their first test of the season, in addition to an early shutout win, two BHS sluggers scored home runs – Trent Schulte and Jack O’Neill – and Truman Miller cleared the bases with a strong triple.

Several Spartans showed superior skills on the mound, and the field work was working just fine, too.

“Baseball will always make you feel like a little kid [and] sometimes it comes back to bite you,” Pollack said after the game. “But, we definitely had our day today. We were on top today and we took advantage of it and we swung the bats well.”

The real early season test for the Spartans, he said, will come Friday, March 20, on the road against O’Dea, the defending 3A champs.

Following that sure-to-be-epic showdown, the Spartans will return home to host Nathan Hale at 4 p.m. Monday, March 23.