By Matt Phelps

Youth and inexperience are part of high school sports. In baseball, pitchers have to throw strikes and teams have to learn how to win in tight ball games.

Last week the Mercer Island baseball team learned that there are 21 outs in varsity baseball — and they have to get every one of them.

Mercer Island took on Liberty, the No. 1 ranked team in the state, on April 5. Despite missing three of the Islanders’ best players, the team took the Patriots to the limit, eventually losing in eight innings, 8-7.

Receiving one of the best pitching and defensive performances in the past few years, Friday, Mercer Island gave up five seventh-inning runs for a 5-1 loss to Mount Si.

“They are starting to get it,” said Mercer Island head baseball coach Doug Williams. “We just have that last hump to get over.”

With as young as the Islanders are, “getting it” is a big plus. Against Liberty, Mercer Island had a good chance to beat the best team in the state with three freshman and two sophomores on the field.

Team rule violations during a trip to Hanford Saturday, April 2, led to three varsity players being suspended from the team.

“If they can’t play by the team rules, then they can’t play,” said Williams.

Mercer Island hung with the Patriots thanks to the pitching of Matt Rowe and Robbie Philbrick, despite the switch in the lineup and five errors on the field.

The Islanders took their first lead of the game during the top of the fourth inning, but could not sustain the lead thanks to miscues on defense. A three-run sixth inning gave Mercer Island the lead at 7-6. The Patriots tied the game in the bottom of the sixth and eventually won the game in the bottom of the eighth.

“We need to focus on defense,” said Williams. “But we had people on base all day and could not get that one hit.”

During the game, Brian Kitamura had the biggest day as he went 2-for-5 with 3 RBI. Islander Hunter Beatty was 3-for-4; Mike Keller was 3-for-5 with an RBI and Alex Gamoran went 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The Islanders’ clutch hitting woes continued against Mount Si, but the difference was Mercer Island’s defense.

Starting pitcher Sam Selby shutdown and shutout the Wildcat offense. Allowing no earned runs, five hits and a walk over the first six innings of the game, Selby hit his spots.

“This was the second good outing in a row,” said Williams. “He has learned how to pitch instead of just throwing.”

Mercer Island got on the board early as a double by Keller and a fielding error gave the Islanders a man on third with just one out. An RBI base hit by Kitamura to right field gave the Islanders the first inning lead.

That one run was all Selby and the Mercer Island defense needed.

The Wildcats tried to claw back, loading the bases with two outs during the bottom of the inning. But Selby induced a pop out to short to end the threat.

During the third inning, Selby induced another infield fly ball, but this hit was an adventure.

Drifting towards shallow left field, the ball sailed away from Islander third baseman Jordan Culpepper as he gave chase. In a last ditch effort to catch the ball, Culpepper turned his back to the infield. Diving down the third-base line and catching the ball. Culpepper rolled over and showed the ball to the umpire for the second out of the inning.

Mount Si mounted another threat at the top of the fifth inning with a lead-off double. Selby caught the runner leaning toward third base, picking the tying run off. Selby struck out the next batter for the final out of the inning.

“He was just throwing first-pitch strikes and keeping the ball down,” said Gamoran. “Our pitchers have a habit of leaving the ball up on 0-2 pitches. But he was on.”

The Wildcats kept trying. The sixth inning saw the ‘Cats get another double. The next batter turned Selby’s fastball around and sent it back at the pitcher and into center field as the runner on second chugged around third base. Freshman center fielder Chris Black charged the ball, scooping it up with his mitt and firing a one-hop strike to Islander catcher Alex Gamoran.

“I was just thinking, `Don’t get killed … and block the plate,”’ joked Gamoran.

The runner’s feet barreled into the catcher’s shin guards just before the ball hit Gamoran’s glove. Gamoran put the tag on the runner. The umpire looked for the ball in Gamoran’s mitt, pumping his fis towards the ground he barked “yer out!”

Mount Si would finally get to Selby and a reliever in the top of the seventh, scoring five runs on five hits, two walks and an error.

Despite the losses, Williams knows that his young team is heading in the right direction. The team committed seven errors against Hanford, five errors against Liberty and just two against Mount Si.

“It is starting to click with our pitching staff,” said Williams. “We just need to tighten up a bit on defense.”

The Islanders played at Issaquah Tuesday (after Reporter deadline) and will host Bellevue at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.