By JOE LIVARCHIK
REPORTER NEWSPAPERS
In his last two games, Mercer Island starting pitcher Harrison Goonewardene has gone the distance without allowing a single run.
Such numbers would seem to be indicative of a player perfecting their form, not returning to it. For Goonewardene, maybe it’s both. The Mercer Island senior pitched his second-straight complete-game shutout while a 2-RBI single from Greg Fuchs broke a scoreless affair as Mercer Island defeated Bellevue 5-0 on April 8 at Bellevue High School.
Through four appearances, Goonewardene is perfect on the mound this year after having his junior season cut short to a back injury.
“I think every start, [I’m] just coming back feeling stronger and stronger and getting more comfortable on the mound after not being there for a year,” he said. “My first two starts weren’t bad, but they weren’t great. The last two have probably been two of my better starts, so I’m really excited about that and how it’s coming around.”
It was a pitchers’ duel through the first half of the game, with Goonewardene and Bellevue starter Jack Enger holding their respective opponents scoreless through four innings of play. Mercer Island (8-3, 8-2 in KingCo) got things going in the top of the fifth. Parker Simpson opened the inning with a single to right field, followed by a double to right from Noah Hsue. Fuchs brought both players home with a single up the middle to give the Islanders a 2-0 advantage.
“I was just looking for something that I could drive the other way or pull it and try to get it to the outfield so we could get two RBIs,” Fuchs said.
Mercer Island coach Dominic Woody said with the starting pitchers battling it out, Fuchs’ hit was just what his team needed. With the wind blowing in across left field, Woody wasn’t expecting to find much success driving balls into the outfield.
“Sometimes you just need to squirt that first one across to kind of lighten everybody else up and just try not to do too much,” he said. “It was a nice job by Fuchsy to get on top, hit something hard and get us rolling.”
The Islanders kept the offense churning the rest of the way. An RBI double from Alex Shanks and a sacrifice fly from Hsue extended Mercer Island’s lead to 4-0 in the top of the sixth. Jack Smith tacked on one more with an RBI single the following inning. From the mound, Goonewardene limited the Wolverines (4-7, 3-7) to four hits while striking out four.
Bellevue coach Tate Seefried said the difference Friday proved to be in each team’s approach at the plate.
“Both pitchers were throwing great. The only thing that changed the outcome of the game was their hitters kept attacking the fastball and it seemed like we were just taking a few too many,” Seefried said. “When you get up there and attack, good things happen. The fifth inning proves it right there. You get some good fastball counts and they put some good swings on there and got a couple runs.”
