This year’s Mount Si High School baseball season, the first under coach Chaz Carr, ended last week in disappointment, as the Wildcats lost two out of three games to fall out of the postseason picture in Kingco 3A.
Last Tuesday, April 29, in a makeup game, Wildcat ace Frank Tassara pitched a strong game, striking out 12, but it was one Bellevue Wolverine who stole the show, and put the entire team on his back.
Nick Moyer went 4-4 with three doubles and a triple, and also added three RBIs as the Wolverines won 7-2.
“Those guys came up to hit today and that guy (Moyer) was special,” Carr said. “He was up there to swing, no doubt about it, but yeah, Frankie [Tassara] threw great. He’s been our guy all year long. It’s just too bad we haven’t been able to put some runs on the board for him.”
Mount Si scored once in the second, on a single by Taylor Campbell which scored courtesy runner Jake Handy from second base, then scored again in the sixth on a Tassara single which scored Rob Lane.
The Wildcats went to Bannerwood Park in Bellevue last Wednesday, April 30, and grabbed a 5-3 win over the Interlake Saints. Taylor Campbell hit a home run to lead Mount Si, but a couple of other ‘Cats had a strong day at the plate. Blake Hepner went 3-4 with a double, run scored and run batted in, Tim Proudfoot added a double and two RBIs, and Tassara went 2-4.
That win set up a must-win Senior Day game at home last Thursday, May 1, against Newport. The game was the final one for seniors Hepner, Handy, Ian Brown, Trevor Gardunia, and Justin Poth.
The Wildcats struggled in a 5-1 loss. The bats were limited to three hits, and the lone run was scored in the second on a Campbell groundout that scored a runner from third.
The loss ended Mount Si’s season at 7-9 league, 8-10 overall.
Carr will remember the contributions of his senior class.
“I wish I had more time with them,” the coach said. “We had one year with them and I will never forget them. They played hard every time they were out there. It was a great year.”
Brown will remember his four years in the program.
“From the ups and downs, I had a fun time making an impact,” he said. “It’s not really the games I’ll remember. Mostly it’s the people that I’ve met and all the friends I’ve made, especially kids that you don’t get to talk to very much.”
Handy will miss the dugout camaraderie.
“I’m going to miss just having tons of fun with all the underclassmen and everybody out here,” he said. “I really enjoyed this year.”
Brown has this message for the underclassmen: “I want them to have pride to wear what’s on the front of their jerseys and represent where you’re coming from,” he said. “Because there’s not a place like this in the world.”
“There’s better things to come, there’s no doubt about it,” Carr told the Valley Record. “Come out, check us out; it’s going to be fun times in the future. We’re going to win a lot of ballgames.”
With a strong freshman class this year that includes a lot of players from the Snoqualmie Valley Little League 12-year old Majors all-star team from 2005, which made a historic run at state, and a dramatically re-shaped league next season, and with the loss of three great teams in Newport, Issaquah, and Skyline, all of whom are moving up to 4A, the pieces are in place for a long run of success in the Mount Si program.
