Kentwood High <\/a>pitcher Avery Kain.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nShortly after throwing a two-hit, complete-game masterpiece in an 8-0 Class 4A state championship against Richland at the home of the Seattle Mariners, Kain took stock of his surroundings and was succinct with his feelings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pure bliss,\u201d the 6-foot-6 pitcher said at the time. \u201cJust awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
A little less than a year later, on the same field where Kain enjoyed the finest athletic experience of his life, came possibly the most difficult ordeal he has ever faced.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
While playing first base in a nonleague game against Issaquah on April 2 at Safeco, Kain reached his long frame out to take a throw from third. It was a play he had been part of thousands of times before without a problem. One he could perform falling out of bed at 6 in the morning. All Kain had to do was stretch, wait for the smack of the ball on leather and listen for the \u201cout\u201d signal from the umpire.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
But this time was different.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After sprawling out to make the grab, Kain fell to the ground in anguish.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was one of those weird things,\u201d said Kain, who will play next year on scholarship at Washington State University. \u201cI stretched to get the ball and my foot came off the bag. I reached back to put my (right) foot back on the bag and it buckled.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
That buckling was Kain\u2019s knee giving way to his large, athletic frame.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt a really loud pop, and couldn\u2019t move,\u201d he said. \u201cAfter that, I was rolling around on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Kain was assisted back to the dugout moments later, but the damage \u2014 just like his season \u2014 was done. The knee that had been so trusty in all those previous years was ruptured.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Two days after the swelling subsided, Kain was officially diagnosed with a torn medial patellar ligament (MPL) and was forced to endure surgery that will require him be on crutches.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it looked like he just stretched out, and then went down on his butt. The next thing I know, he\u2019s rolled over on his leg,\u201d Kentwood coach Jon Aarstad said. \u201cI feel bad for Avery because it\u2019s his senior year, and it\u2019s the year you\u2019re supposed to have and look forward to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And instead?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got a pretty big scar on his (right) leg with about 20 staples,\u201d Aarstad said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Where do the Conquerors go from here? Kentwood entered the season as the consensus favorite to win the South Puget Sound League North Division crown \u2013 and Kain was one of the key reasons for that projection. No doubt, the Conks will certainly feel the loss of their top pitcher and a power bat in the middle of their lineup as the playoffs set to begin Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody else is going to have to step up,\u201d Aarstad said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hit for us, obviously. But we\u2019re still a good team.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Our goals and expectations aren\u2019t changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Despite the ordeal, Kain has remained as committed as ever to the Kentwood team despite having to watch from the dugout as the season has progressed. A hard-throwing right-hander who dials up his fastball between 84 and 87 miles per hour, he has remained just as much of the team as ever before. And he made that clear immediately following the injury, finding a spot on the bench \u2014 crutches and all \u2014 during both games and practices.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI am trying not to make this a big deal,\u201d he admitted. \u201cAt this point, I feel the best thing I can do is help my teammates from the dugout.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yet the loss of Kain certainly will impact the Conquerors going forward \u2014 especially considering the team didn\u2019t have a better postseason performer last spring. In Kentwood\u2019s final five games of 2010 \u2014 a run that included a district title followed by four straight state victories \u2014 Kain went 10-for-17 with two home runs and nine runs batted in at the plate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yet, as good as the big kid was with the bat, he was just as effective on the mound, where he picked up a pair of victories, including that two-hit masterpiece against Richland in the title game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Without Kain, the Conquerors have plugged along.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re making the right steps that we need to,\u201d the coach said. \u201cWe\u2019ve gotten better.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And despite the loss of Kain, the Conquerors expect to have enough firepower offensively and on the mound to make a run at another state title in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
After Kain\u2019s injury, Kentwood proceeded to knock off SPSL North challenger Kentlake (9-1) along with Kentridge (8-5) and Mount Rainier (14-3). During the string of wins, Kentwood\u2019s pitching staff \u2014\u00a0 the same staff that last month Aarstad said was the best he had ever had \u2013 got victorious performances from Skyler Genger, Taylor Jones and Kyle Green.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Genger supplied plenty of offense, going 2 for 3 with three RBIs in the victory against Kentridge, and Kyle Doyle added a pair of hits and a home run in the win over Mount Rainier.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Throughout, Kain remained the team\u2019s top supporter from his spot in the dugout while the Conquerors have stayed neck-and-neck with Tahoma atop of the SPSL North standings.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I can\u2019t be out there, I am going to be the biggest supporter they have,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last May, Safeco Field represented something something special for Kentwood High pitcher Avery Kain.<\/p>\n
Shortly after throwing a two-hit, complete-game masterpiece in an 8-0 Class 4A state championship against Richland at the home of the Seattle Mariners, Kain took stock of his surroundings and was succinct with his feelings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":15128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15127"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15127"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}