Men’s baseball getting it done
By Eric Wilkins, Sports Editor
The men’s baseball team has had a little bit of everything this season: the blowouts (9-1 and 8-1 against Everett and Shoreline), the tough losses (10-4 and 10-1 for Edmonds), and a slew of hard-fought games. It hasn’t always been pretty, but the Royals have found ways to get the job done.
In a continuing theme for Douglas teams this year, these Royals have consistently improved throughout the season and feel that they haven’t hit that top gear just yet.
Following a recent win against Olympic that extended the team’s winning streak to six (a streak that was later pushed to eight), Logan Wedgewood commented, “You would think so [that the team is hitting its stride], but we’re not there yet. We’ve still got work to do. Six looks nice on paper, but we know that we’re definitely a better quality team than what we’re playing right now.”
It was a view shared by coach Cavanaugh Whitely: “I think they’re starting to buy into our plan. There’s some small things that we still need to improve on… I do not think we’ve played our best baseball yet and that’s a positive. This team has got a ton of talent but I don’t think we’ve hit the stride quite yet. It’s nice to get six wins in a row and still not be playing our best baseball; the best is still in front of us.”
While the best may still be in front of them, the squad already deserves some recognition for posting a 15-8 record in conference wins (as of this printing). There’s a handful of individual accolades to accompany the team’s success as well, with a pair of names making some noise on the statistical leader boards. One Royal to distinguish himself is Tyler Yorko, who is just outside the top 25 for batting this year with a .348 average. Meanwhile, on the mound, Matt Trimble is in the top five for wins (5), just outside the top five for strikeouts (36), and posted a 1.91 for ERA.
Despite the team setting school records, Wedgewood feels they could be further along and admitted that the weather has played a factor in the group’s development this year: “We missed out on a lot of at-bats—a lot of rainouts before the season actually started—so it took us a little bit to really start seeing the ball like other teams may have been coming in.”
And so, as the team rounds the final corner heading into the playoffs, wins, losses, and struggles are dismissed; it all comes down to what can you do now.
As said by Brayden Munro, “It should be fun to watch what we can do; we’re starting to really play together as a squad and it’s going to be interesting when we hit our peak.”
Sit back and enjoy the ride, Royals fans; should be a doozy.
