The Bellevue College baseball team had a miracle season that just came to a close. The team overcame numerous problems from the beginning of the season to make it into the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges post-season championship.
The team has been plagued with injuries during the season keeping many players out of commission. Head Coach Mark Yoshino said he feels very fortunate they’ve made it as far as they have despite having just enough players for a team. The team finished the season strong placing first seed in the North Region division and going 8-2 on their last 10 pre-championship games.
They achieved this position despite losing the opening game of the North Region Tourney. After the initial loss, BC won four games by the end of May 19, ultimately winning them the tourney. The team won after stepping up and staying consistent and strong.
The team has evolved since the beginning of the season, not only in play, but also in ability to improvise with injuries. Even Yoshino acknowledges his team’s improvement over the course of the season saying, “[We were] mediocre at the beginning [and are] very good right now.” The team has had a 30-18 record over the season, even with losing some players including a very strong piece of the BC team: “Brady Kerr, our co-captain who is one of many injured players who could not play this year. He has been a tremendous motivator.” Losing a captain or co-captain on a team will usually spell death for any other team. However, BC’s team was able to use Kerr’s injury and turn it into motivation to win the series for him and the other fallen players.
One particular thing about this team is that they don’t have just one leader on the team. “All of our sophomores are leaders.” Those included: outfielder Max Brown, infielder Dae Lee and outfielder Jordan Richartz.
The team just headed into the NWAACC tournament, where they played some strong teams on the road to the NWAACC title.
The team though had a very professional approach to preparing for every game though: “Looking at each opponent one game at a time and planning accordingly, since each opponent is unique in what they bring to the table. This in turn affects how we practice.” By keeping this approach before every game during the regular season, this is one of the many ways the team has been able to win 30 games.
Although the team faced some problems during the season, they found a way to pull through it and made it to the championship at Story Field in Longview, Washington.