Issaquah spoils Fowler’s return

YAKIMA – Nic Fowler waited much of his life for the day he’d pitch at Parker Field. Perhaps his next return to the ballpark will yield more favorable results.

Issaquah spoiled the Mt. Spokane youngster’s would-be fairy tale Saturday with a potent hitting attack, and the Wildcats’ season ended with an 18-5 loss in a State 3A baseball opener.

A sophomore who moved from Yakima to Spokane when he was in the fourth grade, Fowler hoped to spur Mt. Spokane into the state quarterfinals slated for Saturday afternoon. Of personal significance, however, was that Fowler could do it in front of family and friends in a ballpark he was intimately familiar with from his life here.

“I grew up down the street from here,” he said. “We used to drive by it every day. This is the first time I’ve ever played here.”

Fowler looked sharp early, retiring five of the first six batters he faced. But with two out in the second, he left a thigh-high fastball over the plate that Issaquah’s Mario Sanelli turned into a towering two-run homer just to the right of the 400-foot mark on the center-field wall.

Fowler’s woes soon multiplied. He faced seven additional batters before registering the third out, and the Eagles quickly possessed a 7-0 advantage.

“I wasn’t getting anything low, down in the zone,” Fowler said. “I tried to adjust, and every (pitch) came up.”

Mt. Spokane coach Alex Schuerman relieved Fowler at the start of the third, but Issaquah eventually succeeded against relievers Jeremy Carey and Jarek Cunningham. The Eagles rapped out 23 hits and batted around the order in the second and fourth innings while building an insurmountable 15-0 lead.

“They just mashed on us,” Schuerman said. “We made some decent pitches, but they were just crushed. They’re very balanced at the plate, and they put a good swing on everything we threw up there.”

The Wildcats recorded their first run in the bottom of the fifth on Bryce Raynor’s run-scoring groundout.

Raynor added a two-run single in Mt. Spokane’s four-run sixth, and Mark Purser added a solo homer to left.

Cunningham and Andy Pittz both recorded two hits for the Wildcats (21-4).

Issaquah’s Robert Johnson was 5 for 5 with a three-run homer highlighting a six-run fourth. Matt Gellatly was 4 for 4 with a three-run homer off Fowler and an RBI single in the fifth.