Unbeaten Blaine gets a charge from Watts
Senior pitcher Brandon Watts had fully expected to make his first three high school baseball starts for defending Wisconsin Division II champion Waupaca.
Instead, following a summer family move, Watts is 3-0 for unbeaten Blaine after he and fellow right-hander Eric Davis combined to pitch the Borderites’ 12-5 Northwest Conference win over Lynden Christian Thursday on the sunniest day of 2017 so far.
“The coach retired after winning state and the JV coach moved up and told me I was in line to compete for No. 1,” said Watts, who was a reliever with the state titlist at Waupaca, which plays in a division comparable to Washington’s Class 3A in school size. “I had mixed emotions about the move, but I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to play with than we have at Blaine.”
Now Watts dreams of bidding for a state Class 2A title with the Borderites (6-0 overall, 3-0 NWC), which reached the state regionals with an even younger team last season. Blaine started six juniors and sophomores against the Lyncs (5-2, 1-2).
“He’s been a pleasant surprise,” coach Sean Linville said of the affable Watts, who also contributed in football for Blaine after not playing since his freshman year. “It didn’t take us too long to realize we’ve got a player here.”
WATTS BATTLES BACK
Watts allowed seven of the first 10 Lyncs to reach base, via four hits, three walks and a hit batter (one man was thrown out stealing by junior catcher Kai Nagle). But Watts got a strikeout to end the first inning and then retired 10 in a row, starting with the last two outs of the second inning. With two outs in the fifth, Davis entered and saw Nagle throw out his second runner. Davis struck out three in the final two innings.
“I usually takes me a while to get in a groove,” said Watts, speaking about what he needs to work on.
“We’ve walked over 40 batters in our six games,” said Linville, talking about how Blaine must improve despite its strong start. “We’re not really surprised with our good start, because we have athletic players and we can hit pretty well (55 runs including the 12 against the Lyncs).”
PLENTY OF HITS
No. 8 hitter Julian Gonzalez, a junior, went 3 for 4 with three runs and an RBI for Blaine. No. 9 hitter Colby Knutzen, a sophomore, went 2 for 4 with three RBI, including a run-scoring single for an 8-2 lead in the fifth and a two-run single for an 11-3 advantage in the sixth.
Anthony Ball drove in two runs with a double and a sacrifice fly. Davis went 2 for 2 with an RBI, Watts was 1 for 1 with an RBI, and Jon Gunderson drove in two runs. Shortstop Jalen Kortlever -- who made the play of the game with a fine throw from deep short to help Davis in the sixth -- doubled and scored twice. Leadoff hitter Chase Abshere went 2 for 5 with a double.
The Lyncs, who have already matched their win total for last year, received three RBIs from cleanup batter Tyson Cline along with a 2 for 4 day and two runs by Dylan Vander Yacht. Ty Van Dyken had two hits, scored once and drove in a run, and Tanner Jansen had an RBI single.
‘PRETTY EXCITED’
“We’re pretty excited with how talented they are,” Linville said of his team’s youth. Watts and veteran standouts Kortlever and Ball were the only senior starters Thursday. “We had kind of expected to be where we’re at now” -- but he pointed out the Borderites still must face tough Lynden, Burlington-Edison, Anacortes and Ferndale, all playoff hopefuls in one of the state’s most competitive leagues.
“We’re trying to work on the finer parts of the game,” said Linville, who pointed out many such aspects in his long post-game talk with the team. In fact, in order to take advantage of the first good weather of spring, he scheduled a full intra squad game Friday, complete with a genuine umpire.
This story was originally published March 31, 2017 at 8:11 AM with the headline "Unbeaten Blaine gets a charge from Watts."