TACOMA — In six state appearances in program history, Mountain View’s baseball program has zero wins.
Riley McCarthy and his teammates are fully aware for what’s at stake next week for the 3A state tournament.
Despite a 9-3 loss to Gig Harbor in Saturday’s 3A bi-district title game, the Thunder know it could be a historic year for the baseball program.
Mountain View already clinched its second state berth in three seasons, but that 0-6 all-time state record is on the Thunder’s minds.
“We’ve all been waiting for that moment,” said McCarthy, the Thunder’s sophomore catcher who went 3 for 7 with two runs on the day. “We have a crazy group of seniors; I think it’s the best senior class Mountain View has ever seen. And the opportunity for them to rewrite the history books for Mountain View is something we’ve been excited for all year.
“And we’re ready go to.”
As the No. 2 seed out of District 3/4, Mountain View (22-2) travels to Bellevue’s Bannerwood Park for next week’s 3A state tournament.
Saturday, McCarthy caught all 14 innings over two games at Heidelberg Park. In the semifinal, Andrew Selden pitched a complete-game, four-hitter and the offense scored three runs in the first two innings for the 5-1 victory over Timberline of Lacey.
That momentum showed early against the Tides with Selden’s RBI single scoring Garrett Moen in the first inning. But Gig Harbor sent 10 batters to the plate in its home half of the inning, scoring six runs off Thunder starter Aaron Hsu.
Mountain View never got closer than 6-3 when McCarthy scored on a the second of two errors in the fourth committed by Gig Harbor, then Selden scoring off Jack Sobota’s single.
For that elusive state win next week, McCarthy kept it simple.
“We have to stay positive,” he said. “That was a big thing today; I saw our energy dip a bit. We got down early in the second game and our energy level took a hit. If we keep it up, there’s not a whole lot of teams that can beat us.”
