Baseball preview: Mt. Spokane hopes to defend league title, break GSL drought at state

Since the WIAA started awarding state titles for baseball in 1973, a Greater Spokane League member has never won a championship.

A few have come close. Central Valley played in the second championship game in state history in 1974. Ryne Sandberg’s North Central team was a runner-up in 1978. Shadle Park reached the title game in 1980 and 1982. Mead (1989), Ferris (1992) and North Central (2001) all had a shot at a championship.

But all came up short.

This season, if early polls can be believed, things might be different.

In the season’s first state baseball poll released by the Seattle Times earlier this week, the GSL was well represented, with Mead (5-0, 4-0) appearing at No. 4 in 4A and defending GSL champ Mt. Spokane (5-1, 4-0) at No. 4 in the 3A poll.

The Wildcats finished undefeated in league last season (21-2, 18-0) and they feel like they can duplicate the feat and get another shot at erasing the GSL’s title drought.

“Definitely,” said senior 3B/P Ben McKinnis. “I think this team can win a state title. I thought it about last year’s team too, but we had poor luck there (in the playoffs). But it’s our time. We need to.”

“We have unfinished business,” said junior SS/P Brady Hill, who was GSL 3A MVP in football. “We had a really good offseason and I think we can come out and repeat.”

Senior OF/P Cole Hattenburg, a three-sport star, agreed. “In all sports they favor the west side so it puts a chip on our shoulders to show them the east side is where it’s at,” he said.

Hattenburg gave the Cats 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief in knocking off the Bullpups 4-1 on Monday.

“I think we can go undefeated again and show everyone in the GSL that it wasn’t a fluke and we’re out here to do some business.”

The sentiment was universal throughout the Wildcats’ dugout.

“We got cut short last year in the playoffs,” junior catcher Quentin Ayers said of the Wildcats’ 2-1 loss to Southridge in the district tournament. “It left a really bad taste in our mouths. I think that’s going to fuel our fire this year. I feel confident in this team. We’re a bunch of scrappers.”

Coach Alex Schuerman, in his 15th season at Mt. Spokane, wouldn’t go that far, but acknowledged that his players probably feel that way.

“I think the kids always feel it,” he said. “If you don’t win it all you always feel like there’s something left on the table. We ran into two really good teams in the playoffs last year, with Southridge and Kamiakin, they were playing hot.

“And it’ll be the same thing this year. It’s never an easy road.”

In the Times’ poll, last year’s state runner-up Southridge is ranked No. 1 and Kennewick is No. 3.

“Our goals are still, we want to win the GSL title first, that’s always the goal,” Schuerman stated. “Then we want to try to make it to state. That’s always a goal. And then we want to try to win state.

“It would be silly if we didn’t say we weren’t trying for that,” he said. “Otherwise, why do you play the game really?”

Mt. Spokane, and the league in general, graduated some high-end players – especially starting pitching – but there’s obviously still a lot of talent to go around.

“I think this year is a little bit of a rebuilding season for the GSL across the board, including us,” McKinnis suggested. “We have a lot of younger guys. We only have a few starting seniors.”

“There was a lot of pitching that left, a bunch of D-I and JC players,” offered Ayers. “But we’ve got a good program here. I think the coaches will get us back to where we need to be and be successful.”

McKinnis, Hattenburg and first-team all-GSL OF Mikey Tsuchida return for senior leadership, but the Wildcats’ junior class is stocked with several potential Division I players, including Hill, Ayers and P/1B Stu Flesland.

“Quentin, behind the plate, he just anchors us,” Schuerman boasted. “He has 10 to 12 assists already in our six games. He’s such a threat our pitchers don’t have to get as many outs because he gets them for them. Just controlling the game behind the plate is a huge plus for us. Our pitchers are very confident throwing to him.”

Flesland starred in Friday’s 14-5 win over Gonzaga Prep. He struck out nine in five innings and clubbed a three-run homer to left into a stiff wind that put the Wildcats up 4-1 in the third.

“Stu on the mound, he’s our No. 1 for us right now,” Schuerman explained. “He’s just such a competitor. Throws three pitches for strikes. You know you’re going to get a great outing from him every time.”

“He loves the game of baseball,” McKinnis said of Flesland. “He tries his heart out. He works hardest in practices and always has his head on the ball. He’s always in the right place at the right time, trying his hardest.”

Schuerman didn’t want to take anything away from his group of seniors, but conceded that his junior class was special.

“Our junior class depth-wise is as deep as we’ve had one class in a long time,” he said. “We’ve got six or seven quality players that are going to probably going to play college baseball somewhere.

“But we’ve got good seniors, good sophomores. We’ve got a pretty good club.”

As is the case every season, the weather has been spotty in the early goings, with temperatures still lingering in the upper 30s and lower 40s and rain, snow and wind across the area. It makes it tough for teams to get out on the field to shag fly balls.

Schuerman even joked that the grass doesn’t turn green at his field until June. But at least they’ve played at home this season, as opposed to last year.

“It feels like we’ve closed the gap on the Tri-Cities (teams), but we’re always going to be behind the eight-ball with the weather,” Schuerman confessed. “But that doesn’t mean our players aren’t as good. I think the key is we keep gaining confidence that we can compete with those guys.”

That said, Schuerman feels pretty good about his team’s chances this season.

“We’ve got a bunch of guys that work hard to be at the top. And that’s the goal,” he said. “Obviously this is a tough league but the goal is to win it and these guys worked hard in the offseason to get ready for this year.

“There’s a lot of pride in that dugout. They were the league champs last year and they want to defend it.”

Bullpups nipping at their heels

One of the teams looking to knock off Mt. Spokane at the top of the GSL is Gonzaga Prep, which finished second in the league last season (18-6, 14-4) and returns key seniors and all-league first team selections SS/P Connor Coballes and OF Bo McGinn and honorable mention P Josh Grimes.

Coballes is a four-year starter at short for the Pups and will continue his baseball career next season at Yakima Valley.

“Coballes is without a doubt one of the better players in Spokane and our leader on the mound, our leader at short, our leader in the field,” coach Brian Munhall said, in his ninth season at the helm for Gonzaga Prep.

“He’s got a pretty electric arm,” Munhall continued. “He’s a three-pitch kid but his biggest feature of anything he does is that he’s fearless and he’s competitive. He isn’t going to step down against anybody.”

“Cabo’s tough on the mound,” Schuerman said. “He’s been tough on us three years straight.”

“It was fun playing with a lot of my older friends being the smallest kid on the team for a couple of years,” Coballes said. “I’m still not the biggest. But that’s alright. It’s a lot of pressure but (Munhall) had trust in me and every time out I was in a tough spot. But I knew I was there for a reason and had to trust the process and keep grinding it out.”

Coballes is now the mentor to the younger players on the team.

“Coming into my senior year, it means a lot. It’s the last time wearing ‘Prep’ on my jersey. I want to go out fighting.

“I want to live in the present and enjoy what I have with my family out here, my teammates, and really show them what being a Bullpup is all about. I figure if I show them what it means to me then they’ll hopefully follow and carry that on.”

Munhall thinks the balance of talent in the league is hard to gauge after the success of last season.

“Last year was one of the best years that this league has ever had,” he said. “There was a lot of really talented senior pitching and a lot of it graduated. I think there’s a whole lot of question marks this year.”

As for the prospects of his own squad, Munhall was open to point out both strengths and weaknesses.

“Pitching and defense are always the key, and I think we’re going to be good on the mound,” he said. “I’ve got five, six, seven guys that I trust and they’re going to compete really well. Defensively I think we’re going to be great.

“But we have to hit. That’s our identity crisis the last couple of years. We’re going to have to find some offense.”

Munhall thinks the baseball team can use the state champion basketball team as motivation and inspiration. After all, outfielders Noah and Nick Drynan and manager Devin Culp all played on G-Prep’s state basketball title winner.

“The culture (at Gonzaga Prep) is to be successful and to win,” Munhall explained. “Being able to experience that and see it – we had the day off that day and bunch of kids got to go over and be in the stands – it’s a big deal.”

Coballes concurred. “Being a part of that just, that being our team, our school – that’s us,” he said. “It’s something we have to try our best to live up to.”

Munhall knows that competing at the highest level of state is tough on Eastern Washington teams, with shorter playing seasons and weather problems that can last until June.

“It’s tough. I think it’s been 43 years since a 3A or 4A from Spokane has won state. We’re unfortunately aware of it and we’re all chasing it.”