OLYMPIA — On Star Wars Day, a day when die-hard fans of the renowned franchise greet one another by uttering “May the fourth be with you,” the Capital Cougars did not have the word “fourth” on their minds.
Capital started Monday in fourth place in the Puget Sound League Nisqually Division. Not a bad place to be, but the Cougars saw a path toward a much more desirable third place ahead of their regular season finale against Bellarmine: win and put on Gig Harbor foam fingers.
The Cougars needed a win over Bellarmine and a Gig Harbor win over Timberline to skip the tiebreaker and clinch a spot in the district tournament.
Check, and an emphatic check.
Capital shut out Bellarmine 10-0 in six innings to punch its ticket to the district tournament for the fourth consecutive season. Additionally, Gig Harbor crushed Timberline 15-5 to, in Star Wars terms, force the Cougars into third place and the Blazers to fourth, as Capital (9-11, 8-8 Puget Sound League) holds the tiebreaker over Timberline (8-11, 8-8 PSL).
Third place in the division was the best-case scenario for Capital, as it reserves a first-class seat to the District 3 3A Tournament next week. Fourth place gets a tiebreaker against the fourth-place squad from the Narrows Division for the final spot in districts. Fifth place misses out on the postseason.
“I feel like we’ve been getting better throughout the year. The kids have been working hard,” Capital head coach Brian Shannon said. “We’ve done a better job of putting the ball in play in the second half of the season and getting more comfortable and more confident playing at this level.”
It’s been a rollercoaster season for the Cougars, who replaced a handful of starters from last year’s team that qualified for the state tournament and started this spring 0-4 against four quality opponents.
Coincidentally, the Cougars are certain that their collective upward trajectory sparked in mid-April when they swept Timberline, the team they just surpassed in the standings.
“That was a pretty big point in the season. It helped flip things around for us,” junior pitcher Brooks Barker said.
Barker was dialed in from the mound against Bellarmine, making quick work of the Lions with a dozen pitches in the first inning. He then provided the Cougars with their first hit and run scored, as Isaac Linville’s grounder forced an error by the Lions.
He even scored the second run of the game thanks to Max Hanson’s RBI double in the third. Capital relied on the small-ball game in the third inning, as Xavier Green drove in two on a bunt single and another Bellarmine error, and Hayden Deskus’ sacrifice bunt brought Green home.
“That’s kind of how we like to play the game. We don’t have a team this year that’s gonna bang balls as much as the last couple of years and hit with as much power,” Shannon said. “We just want to put pressure on teams, and we were able to do that day. Guys did a good job executing, getting bunts down and running the bases well.”
Lane Nixon led off the fourth inning with some power, lining a triple to right field and scoring on an RBI by Linville. Once again, Capital executed its secret weapon of small ball, with Easton Bramble getting in on the bunting action by scoring Barker.
Senior Aiden Bunker, in his final home game as a Cougar, helped send his team home early, ripping a two-run single in the fourth and then a “walk-off” RBI single to enact the 10-run mercy-rule threshold in the sixth. He finished 3 of 4 at the plate with three RBIs.
Bunker was a junior varsity player for the first three seasons of his career before earning the varsity nod entering his senior campaign. During warmups before last year’s PSL title game, he dislocated his shoulder while throwing a ball and had to be driven to the hospital by Capital athletic director Steve Taylor. He ended up having shoulder surgery but was able to compete at the start of this season exclusively as a hitter.
“I can’t throw more than like 90 feet. I’m a full-time hitter,” Bunker said. “I can’t really play the field at all. But it doesn’t limit my hitting at all.”
Monday’s performance proved that. Bunker said he was working to improve his focus and patience at the plate after he admitted he was chasing off-speed pitches last week against Gig Harbor. And in his final home game, he had the perfect send-off with the “walk-off” hit to officially send Capital to the district tournament.
“I was walking up to the plate and I was like, ‘This is the moment. This has to be my senior moment. I’ve got to get this right now,’” Bunker said. “I got the pitch I wanted. I was a little emotional [before the game]. I parked my car, heard the music, saw all the posters, and it was setting in. My teammate Hayden Deskus and I were in the car thinking, ‘Wow, this is crazy. This is our last game playing on this field.’ It’s been a lot of fun over the last four years. I’m grateful for every chance I’ve gotten.”
Barker pitched six shutout innings for Capital, allowing only two hits and two walks while striking out three. He admitted that he didn’t have his curveball working at its full strength, but his cutter and fastball were too much for Bellarmine to handle.
Capital celebrated its five seniors before the game — Garred Clark, Max Hanson, Hayden Deskus, Isaac Linville and Aiden Bunker.
Capital’s next task is the district tournament, which begins May 12. The Cougars are confident that they can compete against anyone in the field.
“We’ve gotten better as the year has gone on. We’re a young team, but these guys are dogs,” Bunker said. “We can be as good as anyone in our league. I’m confident in our abilities.”
