Even when snow was on the ground a couple weeks ago, baseball fever was in the air at Kentlake High.<\/p>\n
The snow is gone. The fever isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
The Falcons certainly have plenty of reason for excitement these days. One doesn\u2019t have to look any further than the magic that took place on the diamond last spring, then glance down this year\u2019s roster and realize what\u2019s returning.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am pumped,\u201d said first-team all-league shortstop Bobby Joe Tannehill, a 6-foot-3, 185-pound senior who has received interest from Washington State University, the University of Oregon and Sacramento State among others. \u201cI\u2019m chomping at the bit. Everybody is pumped right now, ready for the season to start and get the credit that we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, however, the Falcons are receiving plenty of credit \u2014 and praise \u2014 from coaches throughout the South Puget Sound League North Division. In the preseason coaches poll, Kentlake was the unanimous choice to win the division.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey definitely should be at the top of the league,\u201d Kentwood coach Jon Aarstad said.<\/p>\n
Tahoma coach Russ Hayden agrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re loaded,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Loaded might be an understatement. Though the Falcons graduated six players from last year\u2019s team that won a school-record 21 games, the SPSL North title and went on to a second-place finish at state, they still return most of pieces that helped them reach the title game at Safeco Field.<\/p>\n
Right now, the key is keeping things in perspective, coach Jason Evans said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Our biggest issue is) keeping our heads in the game for seven innings, not just walking on the field and saying, \u2018We\u2019re the Falcons and we\u2019re going to win.\u2019 That\u2019s the biggest challenge,\u201d Evans said. \u201cBeing top-ranked, that\u2019s my fear. Nobody is going to lay down for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first state poll had not been released as of late last week. But when it does arrive, the Falcons are likely to see their name rather high. Because when it comes to talent, few teams can compete with what Kentlake has returning.<\/p>\n
Tannehill, a switch-hitting shortstop who received letters from every major league team during the offseason, anchors a talent-laden bunch hungry to get one game further than last year. Gifted defensively, there aren\u2019t many players in the state who have the range or arm that Tannehill possesses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody on the team\u2019s thought process is that we took second last year, and we\u2019re just as good,\u201d Tannehill said. \u201cThe plan is to win at Safeco, to walk away with a state championship.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Falcons have the depth and talent to do it, too.<\/p>\n
Matter of fact, no team in the area can boast quite the one-two punch on the mound that the Falcons have. Right-handers Zach Wright and Doug Christie, two kids who bring it in the high \u201880s, proved unflappable last year as sophomores. The two seemingly traded big-game performance after big-game performance, coupling good velocity with pinpoint location to both baffle and dominate hitters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really coming into themselves,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThey pitch like they\u2019re 18-19 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n
Add slugging first baseman Miles Nagel, a first-team all-leaguer last spring, and second-team outfielder Andy Enders, and the enthusiasm at Kentlake is understandable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey want to get league, win SPSL and win Safeco to top it all off,\u201d Evans said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Even when snow was on the ground a couple weeks ago, baseball fever was in the air at Kentlake High. The snow is gone. The fever isn\u2019t. The Falcons certainly have plenty of reason for excitement these days. One doesn\u2019t have to look any further than the magic that took place on the diamond last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-15730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15730"}],"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=15730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15730"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=15730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}