Bellingham Bells set to defend title

Whatcom County, summer baseball is back, and for the Bellingham Bells, there’s a West Coast League Championship to defend.

Eight-and-a-half months ago Bellingham put together back-to-back wins against Corvallis to earn the organization’s first WCL title. The club’s 41-18 record marked only the fourth time in league history a team finished with 40-plus wins.

Now attention turns to 2015. Bells coach Jeff James, back for his second year, believes he has another strong roster assembled by pitching coach Jim Clem. With it, the Bells again have high aspirations.

“It’s fun to be back, and we’re excited,” James said. “You can tell there is a good buzz around the community with how fortunate we were to put a good run together.”

The Bells open their season at home against Kitsap at 7:05 p.m. Friday, June 5, at Joe Martin Stadium.

James’ coaching success continued after his first year with the Bells. James, an assistant at Seattle University, helped the Redhawks to their best season in program history.

He’ll be looking to follow up again, and to do so he and Clem have enlisted help from some of the cornerstone pieces that brought Bellingham its title a season ago.

Maine product Lou Della Fera, Pacific University and former Burlington-Edison Tiger Walker Olis and Gonzaga University’s Dustin Breshears are a few of the Bells’ top returners.

They’ll join a fresh influx of talent with a strong blend of veterans and young players.

“Really great job, and he always does that,” said James of Clem’s offseason recruiting. “The contacts he has around the nation are just unbelievable, that type of talented guys we get in here. He has really built a good relationship with some of these schools that they trust in us and know we will do our best to take care of them, and because of that we get such quality players.”

As is custom, during the next few weeks many of the mid-season regulars will begin trickling in while their college seasons conclude, but James is relying on a solid group of 10-day contract players to help spark a strong start

Key, James said, will be the leadership he gets from some of the returning players already in Bellingham. Of those, middle infielder Breshears is certain to play a big role.

“That’s why we wanted them back, because they are leadership guys that work hard everyday,” said James of the Bells’ returners. “We got a good combination of mature guys, especially position-player wise.

Breshears is the team’s top returner in batting average (.287), finished third on the team in runs (28), third in RBI (26) and second in stolen bases (10).

“I’m really excited to be back here and to have another opportunity to play for the Bells,” Breshears said. “I mean last year, obviously, we had a really good season. A great group of guys, and to be able to win a championship, it’s kind of looking like the same atmosphere we had around the clubhouse. ... Hopefully we can bring another championship to Bellingham.”

Breshears is coming off a strong season at Gonzaga in which he was one of three players to start each of the team’s 52 games. Although the Bulldogs finished 24-28 and didn’t end their season the way Breshears would have hoped, the redshirt junior performed well.

He finished with a .260 average, 26 runs scored and an on-base percentage of .361.

Originally from Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, Breshears began his college career at Bellevue College before transferring to St. John’s. He transferred to Gonzaga the next year and had to sit out 2014 because of transfer rules before being a major contributor this past spring.

“Just get better every summer,” Breshears said when asked what he wanted to get out of his second stint with the Bells. “That’s pretty much the name of the game with summer ball, just coming out here and competing everyday as a ball player.”

That competitive attitude is what he believes carried the Bells to their success last summer.

“Last year we just did a really good job of competing in tough situations,” he said. “We had great pitching, great defense for most of the year, and that really set us apart from most of the teams. ... Last year we had a great group of competitors.”

Whether or not that same trait reveals itself this summer is to be determined, but the second-year Bells player likes what he sees thus far.

“Last year we had a great atmosphere with the team, and I’m expecting more of the same this year,” Breshears said. “so as of now, as far as I can tell, it’s a great group of guys, so I’m excited to get the season going.”

This story was originally published June 3, 2015 at 1:15 PM with the headline "Bellingham Bells set to defend title."