Blaine athletes show pitching depth in start to baseball season

Brandon Watts and Jalen Kortlever celebrate as Cruz Rodriguez runs home to score the eighth run in Blaine’s 12–1 win over Mount Baker High School on Wednesday, March 22. Photo by Oliver Lazenby.

By Oliver Lazenby

Blaine baseball hit the ground running, winning its first three games. Through those games Blaine allowed its opponents to score just one run, in a 12–1 victory over Nooksack Valley at home on Wednesday, March 22.

Though the first three games were non-conference games, it’s a promising start, especially for Blaine’s pitchers.

Before the season, head coach Sean Linville said pitching was an unknown for Blaine.

The team employed four pitchers in the first three games – Brandon Watts, Jon Gunderson and Eric Davis all started, and Anthony Ball closed against Sehome.

“It was a conscious effort this first couple weeks in our non-league games to get as many guys out there as we can just to give them some experience,” Linville said. “We’ve been really pleased with our pitching so far.”

Linville expects Sehome, which Blaine beat 4–0, to be near the top of the conference. But the first three games might not be representative of how Blaine will do later, Linville cautioned. A lot of teams do what Blaine has been doing and try out a variety of pitchers.

Linville has also been pleased with his team’s performance at bat.

“We had a feeling that we had some guys who could swing the bat and that’s borne out to be true,” he said.