The Bellevue College baseball season is well underway, and the Bulldogs have remained competitive throughout. Despite owning a below .500 record overall at 17-18-1, they managed to win games where they count. Against conference teams, they are 10-6, which is good for second in the North Region of the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC).
A brief glance at their records would deem them unremarkable in most ways: 19th in home runs, 22nd in doubles, 14th in hits and barely top 10 in runs scored. However, in baseball it’s prudent to look deeper at stats that are more meaningful. Their lackluster amount of hits is outweighed by being top-10 in on-base percentage, weighed heavily by their immaculate plate discipline. In 36 games, the Bulldogs have walked 188 times and been hit by 83 pitches, good for fourth and second in the NWAC respectively. Any baseball fan worth their salt will tell you that accumulating that many baserunners in a game will eventually lead to more wins than losses.
Furthermore, their pitching, anchored by 57 innings of stellar baseball by freshman Micah Hagler, has been a good source of stability for the team. Bellevue’s 3.85 Earned Run Average is good for ninth in the league, and the .228 batting average earned a place in the top 10. While Hagler deserves a bulk of the praise for his heroic efforts on the mound due to his 2.05 ERA over eight starts, the entire pitching rotation has been solid. R’Mani Adams, Tristan Aasland and Chase Archibald have all accumulated over 30 innings of solid baseball so far this season.
On the offensive side, you wouldn’t believe the Major League comparisons you could draw from Bryan Sfanos’ .460 on-base percentage. Over a full MLB season, .460 would place you squarely between the peak seasons of MVPs and future hall of famers Bryce Harper and Mike Trout, two of the most household baseball names of today. Plate discipline on its own is one thing, but when you can pair that with a constant threat on the basepaths, you turn walks into runs with excellent frequency. It makes Sfanos and his 21 steals a constant thorn in the opposition’s side.
And when you have a guy that can consistently get to second base on a walk, you pair that with the premiere Bulldog slugger Brandon McKinley. Boasting three of Bellevue’s five home runs this year, and pairing it with a .271 average, he is the perfect player to capitalize on the baserunners that the Bulldogs generate. Sure enough, he leads the team with 28 RBI this year.
The stats remind me of the Seattle Mariner discourse from years past. They boast a negative overall record but with a positive run differential. Eventually, you would expect the run differential to prevail and lead the team to greener pastures. Catch their upcoming match with Edmonds on April 28 in a crucial battle for playoff positioning as the season enters the playoff race.
