By JARYD CLINE, staff reporter
Wildcat leadoff hitter junior Joe Castro steps up to the plate, the song, “Started from the Bottom” by Drake blaring from the loud speakers. “Started from the bottom now we’re here, started from the bottom now my whole team here.”
Castro’s walkup song is representative of the last couple of Wildcat baseball seasons. Plagued with losing records for the last four years, the Wildcats find themselves atop the Great Northwest Athletic Conference standings with a chance to do something they haven’t done in more than 20 years in the GNAC.
The Wildcats are in the midst of a breakout season, due in large part to the team’s balance between great pitching and a juggernaut offense.
Central leads the GNAC in team earned run average at 4.01 and team batting average at .316 and holds a hefty lead in both categories. The Wildcats have always had strong hitters, but going from one of the worst pitching teams in the GNAC to the best in just one year is no small feat.
New assistant and head pitching coach Rob Hippi, who spent 23 years developing pitchers at Lower Columbia College in Longview, returned to Central after a standout baseball career from 1968-70.
“Oh it’s been huge [having Hippi], he’s got a great reputation and he knows what he’s doing and the pitchers understand what he wants,” head coach Desi Storey said.
During his time at LCC, Hippi helped guide at least 20 pitchers into the professional baseball ranks, including one who was taken in the first round of the 2010 Major League Baseball first year player draft.
The Wildcat pitching staff has already improved tremendously compared to previous seasons. The team ERA is down almost two and a half runs from last year and opponents are batting just .281 compared to .322 last season.
“They’ve gotten better, they’ve improved as the season’s gone on and they’re a good bunch of kids, and there’s some great arms here,” Hippi said.
Hippi knows what it takes to win at the college level, earning all-conference honors in both 1968 and ‘69, as well as making the Topps All-Pacific Coast Team in 1969 while at Central.
Hippi won 15 games in three years at Central while also striking out 224 hitters. Hippi was signed by the New York Yankees organization and played three and a half years of minor league baseball.
“It’s fantastic having him around,” Storey said.
Along with Hippi, Central picked up a few players coached by him at LCC who have made a great impact on the Wildcat baseball program.
Junior starting pitcher Stuart Fewel leads the Wildcats with his 5-1 record and also has a 3.74 ERA. Fewel transferred to Central after one year at Division I Oregon State University and two years with Hippi at LCC. Sophomore relief pitcher Max Dickinson also left LCC to help the Wildcats, making 14 relief appearances this season.
Fewel and Dickinson two aren’t the only new arms the Wildcats acquired during the offseason. Junior starting pitcher Skye Adams has made a positive impact after two years at Edmonds Community College.
Adams is second on the team in wins with his 4-2 record and also in strikeouts, with 32. One of the few returnees to the mound is senior Randy Button who has improved his ERA from 6.12 to 3.94.
This may be one of the best pitching staffs that come through Ellensburg in a while, as 10 Wildcat pitchers have started games this season.
“We have more depth [than last year],” Storey said.
Along with the pitching staff, the Wildcat lineup features many new faces.
“We got a lot of new guys to fill in the spots,” senior designated hitter Kyle Sani said.
Senior third baseman Marc Garza has been hitting the ball extremely well in his first season at Central. Garza currently leads the GNAC in batting average and has been key to the offensive improvements.
As one of the few returnees, Sani has seen a jump in his stats from last year. Sani’s homerun totals are up big as well as his slugging percentage from last year. Of the top-ten Wildcat batters this season, only three of them were on the team last year.
One thing that has recently been on the mind of coach Storey and the rest of the team has been the offensive consistency. As of late, the Wildcats have had trouble hitting the ball well in both games of doubleheaders.
“At times we’re really good this year [on offense], probably just the inconsistency has been the hardest part,” Storey said.
While leading the GNAC in batting average, slugging percentage, hits, total bases and having the least amount of strikeouts against them, it’s scary to think of the success the Wildcats would have if they were to play more consistently.
With 12 games to play in the regular season, the Wildcats already have more wins this year (23) than each of the last four years where they failed to break the 20 win mark in each season. Victories in the remaining games will not come easily for the Wildcats; they face 4-32 overall Saint Martin’s University in a four game series before traveling to take on Montana State Billings University, sitting right behind Central in the GNAC standings.
The last four regular season games may make or break the Wildcats breakout season as they square off with GNAC leading Western Oregon University.
The Wildcats split the four game series down in Oregon in late March but will have a chance to go for the sweep in their last home games of the year.
For the Wildcats to remain at the top, the rest of the season will need to continue the way it has; filled with hard work, better offensive consistency, and just going out and having fun each day.
“It’s a lot more fun to come out to the yard every day when you have more than 15 wins over a 50-game season,” Sani said.
