Mount Si clinches first state title with last-gasp rally
June 1, 2011
By Dan Catchpole
Mount Si High School’s Trevor Lane (left) and Shorewood catcher Christian Heideger look to the home plate umpire for the call on a play at the plate. Lane beat the throw, scoring on Max Brown’s hit to stake Mount Si to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Photo by Dan Catchpole.
Down to their last out in the 3A state high school baseball championship and trailing 4-2, the Mount Si Wildcats pounced on fielding lapses by Shorewood to score three runs and clinch the state title.
Shorewood took the lead on a two-run home run by third baseman Max Jacobs, and the Thunderbirds looked to be on their way to a state title behind Henry McAree’s pitching.
But with two outs in the seventh, the Wildcats’ Dustin Breshears reached first with two outs on a fielder’s choice. Robb Lane singled to right field, where a fielding mishap let the runners advance to second and third.
Tim Proudfoot hit the first pitch of his at-bat back to McAree, who bobbled the ball and threw wide of first base. Breshears and Lane came home to tie the game, and Proudfoot advanced to second.
Trevor Lane reached first base and Proudfoot advanced to third on an error by second baseman Jeremy Edwards.
Mount Si’s Max Brown stepped into the box looking for a fastball or changeup.
“I was waiting for one to be straight,” Brown said.
McAree threw a curveball, and Brown swung, hitting it down the third-base line.
Shorewood’s third baseman smothered the ball as Proudfoot broke for home. But Jacobs didn’t come up with the ball.
“Halfway to first, I heard the crowd erupt,” Brown said.
Proudfoot crossed home plate, clinching the school’s first state baseball title, and only its second state title in any sport.
For Robb Lane, his at-bat was a redemptive moment.
Walking up to the batter’s box, he recalled the last time he was in a similar situation in a high-stakes game. He was 12 years old, his team had two outs and it was trailing in a semifinal game.
That at-bat ended in a strikeout. Lane wasn’t going to let this time end the same way.
The lefty looked for a curveball he could pull into the gap in right field. He got his pitch and swung.
“This was my chance for redemption,” Lane said. “That was, by far, the most clutch hit of my life.”
Playing clutch baseball is something the Wildcats have prepared for all season. Nearly every day of practice, Mount Si’s first-year coach Elliott Cribby has had his players run drills like ‘21 outs’ — in which the players have to record 21 outs without a single mistake.
Those drills taught the team mental toughness and focus, several players said.
Going into the seventh inning at state, Mount Si players kept up their chatter, but a tinge of apprehension nagged at them.
Shorewood only needed three outs to clinch its title.
“I thought the momentum was shifting toward them,” Cribby said. “But we didn’t die. We just put the ball in play.”
For much of the game, the Wildcats had struggled to do just that. McAree had pounded the bottom half of the strike zone, keeping Mount Si batters off balance.
The Wildcats’ Reece Karalus had been similarly effective for most of the game. The Thunderbirds struggled to make good contact against his combination of a high-powered fastball, changeup and curveball.
But Karalus ran into trouble in the fourth and fifth innings. Trevor Taylor came in to close out the game, and held Shorewood in check.
“I had butterflies in my stomach, but I kept my composure,” Taylor said.
And that is how Mount Si won its first baseball championship — playing calm, cool and collected ball.
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