Whitworth puts on playoff faces early
PULLMAN – A week ago Whitworth baseball coach Dan Ramsay told his players that it was time to start growing out their playoff beards.
“But coach,” they replied. “The playoffs haven’t started yet.”
Oh yes they have, replied Ramsay, who wants his team already focused like they’re playing in the postseason.
That will be the case soon enough, anyway, for the Pirates (20-8, 11-4 NWC), who have won their last 10 games and sit firmly atop the Northwest Conference standings.
Whitworth has won by following in its own footsteps, the ones laid by a 2012 team that made the Division-III World Series and in so doing, laid the foundation for the Pirates’ current success.
“Right after the 2012 season we had a bunch of donors come forward who were excited about the program,” Ramsay said. “They built us a facility that is just beautiful, one of the elite Division-III facilities in the country and it helped with recruiting because kids want to be winners.”
That group was led by a steady and experienced senior class that was supplemented with some talented freshmen. Those freshmen are now seniors and the cycle has repeated itself.
Joshua Davis, who started 32 games as a freshman in 2012, is batting a robust .421 for the Pirates, and has an on-base-plus-slugging (OPS) percentage of 1.270. Fellow seniors Thomas Wakem and Nick Motsinger also have batting averages north of .300.
Putting the Pirates over the top, though, are freshmen like Joel Condreay, OPS of .913, and Brett Moser and JT Phelan, who are each batting above .340.
Whitworth’s ace on the mound is Dan Scheibe who is holding opposing batters to a 1.93 earned-run average (ERA) and has struck out 60 in 46 2/3 innings. Cory Mack and Spencer Ansett, also seniors, have each thrown a complete game.
That senior class has already experienced the best season in the history of Whitworth baseball. If they can impart the knowledge of what it takes to get there to their fresh-faced teammates, maybe they can best it before they leave.
“Honestly I think their success can really be attributed to their work ethic in the offseason,” Ramsay said. “Those guys didn’t take days off from the time they arrived in the fall to the time we were with them every day in January.”
Around the region
Former Gonzaga pitcher Tyler Olson, who played his prep ball at University High, appears well-positioned to have a spot in the Mariners bullpen on opening day. Seattle selected the Bulldogs lefty with the 207th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2013 MLB Draft. He was named the West Coast Conference Pitcher of the Year after going 9-4 with a 2.38 ERA for the Bulldogs, and had a 19-inning scoreless streak. … Washington State baseball coach Donnie Marbut will no longer hold a weekly coach’s show. Marbut said that he was unsure why South Fork Public House in Pullman no longer wanted to host the show, but the school says it was canceled due to a scheduling conflict.