The NWAACC released their latest coaches polls for baseball and softball recently and Bellevue College sits atop both.
Coach Mark Yoshino’s squad has won 15 of their previous 17, including 13 in a row before a loss last week to Everett.
The Bulldogs have been led by the pitching of Kyle Swannack, who sports an impressive 1.15 ERA for the season and has racked up five wins and not a single loss. “The reason why he’s so effecitve is he throws four pitches for strikes regardless of situation or opponent,” Yoshino said. Swannack, whom Yoshino said has worked a fastball in the upper 80s to low 90s, has signed an early letter of intent to pitch next year for Washington State University.
At the dish, the Bulldogs are absolutely tearing the cover off the ball and have already established a new school record for homeruns with eight regular season games left to play. The homerun record dates to 1994, five years before the NWAACC adopted wood bats.
Yoshino said he is comfortable with the change in offensive approach from last season, when the Bulldogs relied more on “small-ball” with a bevy of speedy base-stealers.
But this year, the Bulldogs have been digging the long-ball. Kyle Johnson has belted eight dingers while Tyler Cox has added seven of his own. Andy Smith has another six and Jerad Casper, Tyler Baumgartner and Kyle Conwell have four apiece. Conwell also leads the team in batting average and RBI, ripping up the NWAACC at a .426 clip with 35 RBI as of May 2, when the last statistics were released.
The superior depth in the Bulldogs lineup has allowed them to remain successful with the long-ball approach, according to Yoshino.
The BC coach credits his team’s winning streak to an early season setback during a trip to Arizona, when they faced some of the top community college programs in the area, including nationally ranked South Mountain Community College in Phoenix.
After falling to South Mountain, the Bulldogs had what Yoshino described as a coming-of-age game in a 10-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants rookies. “Everything clicked from a confidence perspective becasue we competed so well against a minor league club,” Yoshino said. “The competition since then hasn’t been as difficult mentally.”
After the loss to the Giants, Bellevue went on the 13 game tear and suddenly find themselves at the top of the North region of the NWAACC, holding all seven first place votes from opposing coaches. Only Everett is within shouting distance in the standings, but the Bulldogs still have a seven game advantage in the win column and do not face a team with more than seven league wins the rest of the way.
A North region championship means an automatic spot in the NWAACC tournament, which begins on May 26 at Lower Columbia College in Longview.
Francis’ softball team dominant thus far
Only one thing has been able to step in the path of the Bellevue College softball team this season: the weather. The Bulldogs have suffered through fifteen rainouts, including an entire week of games washed out in late March and early April. The result has been several double-headers, and a long string of wins.
Since losing 2-1 to Southwestern Oregon Community College in the first game of a twin-billing in the final week of March, the Bulldogs have won 21 consecutive and find themselves in first place in the North region of the NWAACC. BC is also ranked first in the latest coaches poll, collecting four of a possible seven votes.
BC has dominated in league play, playing only one truly close game against a North region foe in a 3-1 win over Everett. Bellevue pitchers combined to shutout North division opponents in five consecutive games over seven days in blowout wins over Olympic (16-0), Skagit Valley (9-0, 9-0) and Edmonds (14-0, 9-0) before the close-call with Everett.
“A lot of our success really has to do with team chemistry and working really hard offensively and defensively,” head coach Leah Francis said. “I knew we had a talented team back in the fall, it really was just figuring out how to put all the pieces together.”
If they can use the same formula during the playoffs they have throughout a near-perfect regular season, the Bulldogs may find a NWAACC title, the only major accomplishment that has eluded Francis in her time at BC. “They realize they’ve got a realistic chance of winning it this year,” Francis said. “They understand you’ve got to click as a team and kind of be peaking and have a little luck at the same time.”
