Last year’s baseball season ended with fireworks. The boys won four games in a row to make it to the state playoffs; including a victory over Eastside Catholic – the number one-ranked team in the state.

Junior Stephen Adams returns this season, after leading the state with ten home runs last year. However, he isn’t satisfied yet.

“I want to improve on what I did last year, to make myself a more well-rounded player,” said Adams.

Infielder Austin Lastimado comes back for his senior campaign after hitting .473 last year, and leading the team in hits. Senior Bryan Duncan, juniors Trevor Martin, Ryan Wiggins, and Brandon Mackinnon, along with freshman Jeff Freeman, will lead the team on the mound this year, as the primary pitchers.

The expectations are high for 2009 after last year’s performance. The boys have been training hard in the off-season to get better.

“We’ve been working out every day and playing baseball five days a week,” said Wiggins.

Wiggins’ goal is to “win metro and go far in state,” and his teammates agree. Martin’s goal is also “to go to state.” With this amount of work, the boys have no reason not to have high expectations.

The 2009 season had a rough start with a 20-6 loss to Bishop Blanchet. They were able to bounce back with a 12-2 win over Lakeside and a 15-0 romp over Ingraham. Next came a test against Eastside Catholic. After keeping it close for the first four innings, the Crusaders exploded for 15 runs in the final three innings for a 19-7 win over the Wildcats.

They proceeded to play two games in a row against division foe Nathan Hale. In the first game, Nathan Hale jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning. The Wildcats fought back, and scored six runs in the final three innings to pull out a 7-6 victory. The second game was much less climactic, as West Seattle jumped out to an early lead, and cruised to an 11-4 win. After six games their record is 4–2, and are leading the Metro Sound division.

All home games will be played at Hiawatha. The Wildcats will also be playing a game at Safeco Field this year, which will be on April 25 at 6:30 against Newport High School of Bellevue. If the boys can advance to the state finals, they will have the opportunity to play there again on May 29.

Kyle MacDonald is a West Seattle High School journalism student and this article appears originally in the school newspaper, The Chinook.