So far, Tahoma High’s baseball team may be the surprise of the season, even to its coach Russ Hayden.
The Bears are standing atop the South Puget Sound League North Division with a 14-1 record in league heading into play on Wednesday.
Tahoma plays in a tough division that includes defending state champion Kentwood.
Last week the Bears beat the Conquerors twice — 10-0 on Tuesday and 10-8 on Thursday — along with a 15-7 victory over Thomas Jefferson before they put away Kentlake 11-4 on Saturday.
On Tuesday Tahoma started its final week of league play with a 3-1 victory over Kentridge in which Reed Johnson went 4-for-4 with an RBI and a double while Ryan Malone was 2-for-2 with two RBIs.
Hayden, who is in his 19th season at Tahoma, attributes the success to a mix of good hitting, strong pitching and a little bit of luck thanks to Mother Nature.
“We have a very balanced offense, hitting .402 as a team and averaging 11 runs a game,” Hayden wrote in an email interview. “We have 10 guys hitting over .300, so I have to sit one of them every game. It takes pressure off of everyone knowing that we don’t have to count on a couple of guys to have great games every time we are on the field.”
Then on the mound, Hayden looks to Tayler Saucedo, who was 7-0 with an ERA of 2.15 with 54 strikeouts in 39 innings pitched through Tuesday.
Being the ace is a new role for Saucedo.
“Tayler never won a game for us last season,” Hayden said. “Our number two pitcher is Chris Kerwood, who was first team all league last year.”
And then there was the weather.
“We did catch a break in the early season with the rain,” Hayden wrote. “We did not play KW or KL the first half of the season, both teams have very strong pitching staffs. Last week we had a stellar week getting by KW twice, as well as TJ and KL. This last week will be very tough as we have the second, third and fifth place teams to play, KR, (Auburn Riverside), and KL. Hopefully we can pitch and hit well these final three league games.”
Tahoma is most likely a lock for a post-season appearance as it prepares to take on Auburn Riverside, which accounted for the squad’s lone less, and Kentlake this week.
At 9-4 in league Auburn Riverside was in second place in the North heading into play on Wednesday.
Despite the rain, which has limited practice time as well as required a number of make up games, Hayden said he has a plan for getting ready.
“As for the playoffs, we really stress the fundamentals, working on the little things like bunt defense, first and third situations, run downs, and just defense in general,” he said. “We focus on having a quality at bat each time we step up to the plate and make the pitcher have to work to get us out.”
Tahoma has made five appearances in the 4A state championship tournament since 2003 and took home the third place trophy four times in that stretch.
Reach Kris Hill at khill@maplevalleyreporter.com or 425-432-1209 ext. 5054.
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