Mount Baker’s baseball team picked up its first league victory Monday evening with a 10-9 win against Meridian.
Coming into the game, the Mountaineers had an 0-4 record in the Northwest Conference and 2-5 record overall.
Most of the offense in the game was saved for the last three innings and the Mountaineers had to come back late to seal the win.
“They just have fun playing,” Mount Baker head coach McHenry Pattison said of his team. “It’s fun to be in that dugout and we’re pretty young, but we’ve got a lot of guys who trust the next guy to make the next play.”
Mount Baker capped off the top of the fifth inning when junior Brady West stole home to push the Mountaineers’ lead to 4-1.
The Trojans responded immediately in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four runs to take a 5-4 lead with two innings left to play.
Meridian junior Tyrel Brooks started the inning off with a single to centerfield and sophomore Alex Short got on base with a walk. Freshman Jonah Aase reached base on an infield single to load the bases with sophomore Ian Forbes coming up to bat who drew a walk to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Senior Bryce Johnson had the best hit of the game as he sent a ball to deep centerfield for a triple that brought in three runs to give the Trojans a 5-4 lead.
West, on the mound for Mount Baker, pitched himself out of the jam with a groundout and strikeout to retire the side.
Not going away quietly, the Mountaineers’ offense plated six runs in the top of the sixth inning following Meridian’s turn at the plate.
The Mountaineers opened the frame with back-to-back walks. A pitching change didn’t give the Trojans what they were looking for as three consecutive walks allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to score.
Another change on the mound from Meridian changed nothing about Mount Baker’s approach at the plate.
The Mountaineers brought in two more runs on a single by junior Ethan Larson to take an 8-5 lead and scored two more before the end of the inning with a 10-5 lead.
West said being able to bounce back right away after surrendering the early lead felt good, especially against a team as strong as Meridian.
“The team played really well in the field,” West said. “There were just a couple little errors and we fixed it with the bats. We played really well.”
Mount Baker was held scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, so the Mountaineers headed into the bottom of the final inning with a 10-5 lead. All that was left to get were three outs.
West went back out to try and finish off the complete game, but errors kept the Trojans in it and took West off the mound.
Meridian almost completed the comeback effort, scoring four runs in the bottom of the seventh, but the Mount Baker defense buckled down and senior Brent Anderson struck out the final batter looking to end the game.
“We’ve played some games where we’ve had to scrap a bit recently,” Pattison said. “This is one of those times it turned a corner. We’ve got some stuff we need to clean up and learn from a little bit, obviously, but it’s nice to get into a tight game with a tough team and come out on top.”
Mount Baker improves to 3-5 overall with the win while Meridian drops to 5-3.
