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Colville, Washington |
Friday, August 8, 2008 |
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Regional next for Northport |
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Wednesday, 14 May 2008 |
Three consecutive Mustang home runs
help blow out Almira/Coulee-Hartline
BY CHRIS COWBROUGH
S-E Sports Editors
After a slow start, North¬port High (22-2) cranked up the offense and played a little “Home Run Derby” on the way to a 12-5 District 1B baseball playoff win over Almira/Coulee-Hartline last Thursday at Northport.
ACH had opened the two-game District 1B double¬header with a 5-1 win over Cusick.
The Mustangs played Odessa at University High School on Monday in the Dis¬trict title game for seeding to Saturday’s regional tourna¬ments in Yakima and Naches. Those games are loser-out.
Curlew (12-9) and ACH (14-5) played on Monday at U-High in a winner-to-state, loser-out game.
Longtime NHS head coach Don Baribault was planning to start right-hander David Meldrum against Odessa (17-2) on Monday.
Resting Guglielmino
Baribault figured that Mel¬drum (8-1) needed the work and his ace, hard-throwing right-hander Tucker Gug¬lielmino, could use the rest for Saturday’s trip to the Yakima valley and a regional date.
“Odessa is tough again,” Baribault said. “It’s kind of like last year when we battled them. They’ve got a lot of big kids and they hit the ball hard.”
Odessa split with ACH this season and blasted Curlew 19-0 last Thursday in a Dis¬trict 1B playoff game. Of course, Curlew didn’t throw their ace, Jordan Wakefield.
Three Odessa pitchers com¬bined to no-hit Curlew at home last Thursday. Curlew had advanced by downing Columbia 6-1.
A Northport win on Mon¬day would send the Mustangs into a regional on Saturday in Yakima. A loss would get NHS a regional date at nearby Naches.
Either way, it’s a long bus ride to the Yakima valley.
The opponent will be the District 9 No. 2 or No. 3 seed.
The Mustangs, who played in the 1B Final Four in Yakima last season, certainly have a shot to get back, par¬ticularly if Guglielmino and his right arm are on.
If you had told Baribault before the season started that his mostly green team would have only two losses at this juncture of the season (St. George’s and Cusick), he probably would have figured you hadn’t done your home¬work.
After all, there are only three players in the Northport line-up with any appreciable experience. This is 1B base¬ball, where you can play eighth-graders and where newcomers to the game can occasionally be starters.
“It has been a nice run,” figured Baribault, who has experienced a lot of nice runs during his distinguished ca¬reer at NHS.
The Mustangs are accus¬tomed to dominating the Panorama League. It’s been tougher this season, but no less gratifying.
After all, St. George’s, a relative newcomer to the Panorama power elite in base¬ball, has considerably more financial wherewithal to draw from—and they’re a private school. No, we won’t use the word “recruiting” in this story, but the privates are possessed with advantages public schools simply don’t have when it comes to fielding teams and putting together rosters.
Baribault gets a lot out of his talent pool.
Let’s just say that the pri¬vate schools have more flexi¬bility when it comes to filling out rosters and line-up cards.
Baribault hasn’t necessar¬ily done it with mirrors at Northport, but the man is certainly resourceful and gets the most out of the available talent at hand.
His 2008 team is a testa¬ment to that.
“We have done better than I thought we would,” the coach conceded. “I think we hit the ball a lot better than I thought we would. And we have done it with three kids with any experience at all.”
Those three are three key seniors—Guglielmino, catcher Casey Cox and shortstop Dillon Dombrowski.
Guglielmino (11-1), who was the team’s number two pitcher last season by left-handed Mt. Spokane transfer Joe Avey, has matured as a team leader and as the workhorse of the staff.
The strong, 5-9, 220-pounder has a live arm, some nice off-speed stuff and a 1.5 strikeouts per inning average.
Guglielmino had 14 strikeouts in the win last week over ACH. He’s also the team’s leading hitter (nearly .600). The “Baby Bull,” who has hit 11 home runs this season to date and driven in over 50 runs, could have starred in just about any sport he played at Northport.
No, the Mustangs don’t field a football team. That would have been a natural for the senior, who will attend Washington State University next fall.
“Tuck has hit more home runs than any kid I’ve coached,” Baribault said, adding that he’s easily the strongest player he has been around. “He’s quite an athlete and a real brute.”
Guglielmino is also a player that opposing pitchers and coaches in the Panorama League, at least those with a clue, don’t want to pitch to—sometimes at any price. In a sign of some serious respect, Guglielmino has been walked several times…with the bases loaded.
‘He’s a kid who likes to hit.’
“He’s a kid who likes to hit,” added Baribault, who says he’s been intentionally walked 16 times.
In an attempt to end that “free pass” ploy, Baribault has even inserted his power hitter into the No. 1 hole.
The Mustangs hit three consecutive home runs out of the “Friendly Confines” of the Northport field last Thursday. But NHS knows how to manufacture runs too. When you have inexperience up and down the line-up, you do what you need to do to create scoring opportunities.
In the ACH game, Northport hitters worked two Warrior pitchers for six walks. They also know how to “Take A Few For The Team.” NHS batters were also hit by five pitches.
Yes, that did draw the ire of the ACH coach, who complained vociferously after three straight Northport hitters had been plunked by pitches.
Did they get out of the way of those errant pitches? Not very fast.
“We have had 61 kids hit by pitches so far this season,” Baribault noted.
Yes, that is part of playing “Small Ball.”
“That’s a ton of extra runs and scoring opportunities,” he said.
ACH RECAP
Guglielmino, who went the distance against ACH last Thursday, was very effective in the second through sixth innings. He was roughed up in the first and seventh.
In the ACH first, he gave up a lead-off home run that landed on the NHS snack shack well over 350-feet away and then issued four straight walks.
Guglielmino was mostly wild high, but he found the plate often enough to strike out the side. It could have been much worse than that early 2-0 deficit. Still, the NHS ace threw 30 pitches in that first inning.
Get a run back
Northport struck back in the bottom of the first inning. Dombrowski, who had drawn a leadoff walk, went to second on Guglielmino’s groundball out and kept running. A wild throw from first to third scored the senior with the Mustangs’ first run.
Another walk and Meldrum’s single put runners on first and second, but an inning-ending strikeout got the Warriors out of a jam.
After a two-out single off Guglielmino, an off-field line drive to left-field was misplayed, but the relay throw cut down the ACH runner at the plate and Northport escaped further damage.
Northport loaded the bases on three straight hit batters in the second, but failed to score.
NHS took the lead for good in the third inning. A leadoff walk to Philip Johnson, another hit batter and a walk loaded the bases. An attempted fielder’s choice scored the tying run. The Warriors failed to cover first and the bases were still full. A wild pitch put Northport ahead, 3-2.
Meanwhile, Guglielmino was on cruise control, getting a pair of strikeouts and a groundout in the top of the fourth.
Northport blew the game open in the bottom half, playing a little “Long Ball.”
Guglielmino got it started, slamming a 3-0 pitch over the right-field fence to make it 4-2. Not to be outdone, catcher Casey Cox hit a shot over the left-field fence to make it 5-2. Meldrum followed with a line shot over the left-field fence to make it 6-2.
NHS added to that 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Centerfielder Marceilles DeAguero blooped a single to right-field in front of Dombrowski, who cracked a two-run home run over the right-centerfield fence to make it 8-2.
Northport takes full advantage of poor ACH pitching.
A pair of walks and a wild throw scored another run. One balk later and it was 10-2 for an ACH team that got next to nothing out of its pitching staff.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Guglielmino hit his second home run of the game, a towering shot over the light standard behind the center¬field fence.
ACH came back in the sev¬enth to score three times, but it was too little, too late.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 May 2008 )
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