Everett, WA – The Trojan baseball team opened up the 2023 season on Friday and Saturday with doubleheaders against NWAC powerhouse programs, Tacoma Community College and Lane Community College. It was a new but familiar face in the dugout as the skipper for the Trojans, former major league pitcher Keith Hessler saw his first action as a college head coach. Hessler spent the previous two seasons as the pitching coach, leading EvCC to one of the most dominate pitching staffs in the conference, ranking #2 in ERA at 2.32, and the combined 428 strikeouts in 2022 is the most all time in a single season at EvCC.
The back to back north region champions, and NWAC runners up a season ago have high expectations for 2023, ranked #4 in the coaches' preseason poll, returning a number of contributing sophomores, and enough incoming talent to make another run at a title. It started on Friday afternoon with a doubleheader against pre-season ranked #2 Tacoma CC, a program that Everett embarrassed in their last meeting with a 17-3 defeat in the NWAC playoffs last season.
Game 1 Recap
Game One saw both starting pitchers throw no hitters through the first four innings. The Titans pushed a run across in the 6th inning and while the Trojans had some base runners in scoring opportunities could not quite get the timely hit. TCC got another run in the top of the 9th, and while Braeden Terry singled in the 9th to give the Trojans life, the TCC pitching got the job done to give Tacoma win number one of the young season. Starting pitcher Thomas Blahous went 5 innings giving up 1 hit and struck out 5.
Game 2 Recap
Everett got an early run in game two, taking an advantage of a leadoff walk by Ryan Jeffrey who later advanced to second on a wild pitch. He later came around to score on a Sheehan O'Connor single to take a 1-0 lead after the 1st inning.
Both pitching staffs were dominate for the next six innings, giving up a total of just 2 hits and 15 batters striking out. Starting Trojan pitcher Mason Devinney went 7 complete shutout innings and struck out 7 batters.
Heading into the 9th, the Trojans had the 1-0 lead but disaster struck and Tacoma scored 5 runs without an answer from EvCC in the bottom of the ninth. Sheehan O'Connor recorded the lone hit and RBI for EvCC.
Day 2
The rain clouds came in, and caused a four-hour delay to the original 11am start time against #9 ranked Lane Community College. Last season Lane finished 4th in the south region, but won the north super regional at Bellevue to earn a spot at the NWAC Championship tournament in Longview. The Titans defeated Spokane, but eventually were knocked out of the tournament by Mt. Hood, the same program to defeat Everett in the semifinals.
Game 1 Recap
With the long delay the teams agreed to play two-seven inning games. Like the previous day, the Trojans got an early run in the first inning. Back to back singles by Braeden Terry and Aiden Van Rensum got Terry in scoring position who later came around to score on two wild pitches. Lane finally cracked through the Everett pitching in the 4th inning to push across three runs, but the Trojans got them all back in the bottom of the 5th with RBI's from Drew Biggerstaff, Isaac Hoag, and Ryan Contreras to take a 4-3 lead. A leadoff walk helped Lane continue their offense in the 6th and scored two runs on 2 hits. Everett's best opportunity to come back came in the bottom half of the inning, but three runners were stranded on base, and Lane held on in the 7th to preserve the 5-4 win. Terry, Van Rensum, and Biggerstaff each recorded two hits in the game, with Biggerstaff's double being the only extra base hit.
Game 2 Recap
Hunter Bennett got the start in the second game of the day, but after striking out all three batters in the first inning, he had to leave the game before the start of the 2nd inning due to an injury. The Trojan pitching staff, already incredibly thin with injuries, resorted to two position players to finish out the game. Aiden Van Rensum and Sheehan O'Connor combined for 6 innings pitched, gave up two total hits and struck out 10 batters, lifting EvCC to their first win of the season, and the first collegiate career win as head coach for Keith Hessler. Everett only combined for two hits but capitalized on walks, wild pitches, and an error to get a run in the 2nd inning. The only other run of the ball game came in the 3rd with back to back singles from Ryan Jeffrey and Braeden Terry. A sac fly from Jonah Shull brought Jeffrey in from third on a gutsy tag and play at the plate. Aiden Van Rensum threw 4 shutout innings, giving up one hit and striking out 5 batters. Sheehan O'Connor, who typically plays third base or shortstop for EvCC threw 2 shutout innings, gave up a lone hit, and struck out 5 batters as well.
The Trojans will get some pitchers healthy for next weekend's four-game series at home against Wenatchee Valley College. First pitch is scheduled for 1pm, Saturday, February 25th.