Sophomore pitcher leads E-W over Meadowdale 5-2 in 1st start

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — With regular No. 2 starter Brandon Mitchell unavailable to pitch due to arm soreness, the Edmonds-Woodway baseball team turned to sophomore Ian Michael.

It was Michael’s first-ever varsity start on the mound, and understandably he had some early jitters. But the right-hander quickly settled in and delivered all the Warriors could have asked for and more.

Michael allowed only two runs in 6 1/3 innings pitched as Edmonds-Woodway remained perfect in conference play with a 5-2 win over Meadowdale in a Wesco 3A contest Wednesday afternoon at Mountlake Terrace High School.

“We called Ian up and, man, he was clutch,” Warriors coach Dan Somoza said. “He pitched awesome. … I think he was a little nervous, a little tight there at the beginning. But once he settled down, he was lights out. It was one of the better games I’ve seen pitched this year.”

Michael recorded seven strikeouts, keeping Meadowdale batters off-balance throughout the afternoon with a tough curveball. He walked five batters and yielded five hits — just two of which left the infield.

Michael admitted to some early nerves while surrendering a first-inning run on a wild pitch and walking four batters combined in the first two innings. But he found a groove after that, allowing just four base runners the rest of the way.

“My first two innings, I was nervous going out there. And then as soon as the runners got on base, I just got really tight,” Michael said. “But after that, I just started to stay down in the zone and really feel my changeup. And getting all those ground balls helped me out.”

Offensively, it was the bottom-third of the order that led the way for Edmonds-Woodway (7-2 overall, 7-0 Wesco 3A). Nos. 7-9 hitters Jacob Kitchen, Michael and Gunnar Whitelaw batted a combined 5-for-7 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored.

“Usually our big guys do it, but today it was the bottom-of-our-lineup guys,” Somoza said. “It’s fun to see everybody contribute, and that’s what makes a great team.”

The Warriors opened the scoring in the top of the first inning without getting a hit. After being hit by a pitch with two outs, Mitchell advanced to second base on a balk, took third on a wild pitch and scored on a throwing error to give Edmonds-Woodway an early 1-0 lead.

In the top of the third, Whitelaw grounded a leadoff double down the left-field line and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Julian Kodama to put the Warriors ahead 2-1. In the fifth, Kitchen lined a leadoff single into left field and came around to score on a Kosta Cooper sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.

Edmonds-Woodway added two more runs in the sixth, which Michael highlighted by lining an RBI double into the right-center field gap to extend the lead to 5-1.

The victory completed a series sweep for the Warriors, who earned a 2-1 win over Meadowdale (5-4, 4-4) on Tuesday behind a dominant pitching performance from Division I-bound senior Nick Hull, a Grand Canyon University signee who struck out 11 batters and allowed only one run in a three-hit shutout.

Edmonds-Woodway limited the Mavericks to just three runs combined in the two-game series.

“We weren’t very good offensively today,” Meadowdale coach Bill Hummel said after Wednesday’s game. “We failed to execute our short game. We couldn’t get any bunts down and we didn’t score runs from third with less than two outs. And little things like that against a good team are just going to get you beat.”

Nearing the midway point of conference play, Edmonds-Woodway holds a 1.5-game lead over Shorewood for first place in the competitive Wesco 3A South.

“I think we’re in a good spot,” Somoza said. “We set ourselves up here in the beginning of the year. … I think we can get a lot better, though, and great teams keep getting better throughout the year. Our goal is to peak during districts, and hopefully state.”