With a roster of returning veterans, Bellevue College baseball coach Mark Yoshino expected his team to be competitive in the early season.
His expectations were correct – and then some.
The Bulldogs, who finished 12-12 in the North Region of the NWAC and 28-19 overall last year, are off to a 9-1 start this season despite a demanding travel schedule.
“Because we’re experienced, that doesn’t surprise me, but the fact that we ended up on the front end of so many of those close games, that’s kind of surprised me,” said Yoshino, head coach at BC since 1999. “I thought maybe 6-4 or 7-3, something like that. We had to catch a couple breaks in a couple wins. And, we battled back in the late innings in two of the three wins in the triple-header that we won. We won one in the ninth and another one in the eighth.”
Heading into the season, Yoshino said three areas needed to be addressed – the bullpen, left-side infield defense and offensive consistency from a team that missed a playoff berth last season on a a tie-breaker rule.
Early season returns show significant improvement in those areas.
“The bullpen was not good last year, partially because of numbers,” said Yoshino. “We had many injuries last year to the point where we were down to seven or eight total pitchers. With only seven or eight pitchers, and four of them are starters, and out of the four relievers, two or three of them are struggling… that’s a major issue.”
Through the first 10 games, the pitching staff posted a 1.76 ERA and the bullpen registered three saves.
“The bullpen has been lights out and they’ve been getting wins, not saves, because we’ve been coming from behind late in the game,” Yoshino said. “So, the bullpen guys don’t have many saves, they have more wins than the starters.”
Zach Usselman picked up two victories in relief and freshman John Samons notched a pair of saves. Drew Lomsdalen won his first two starts with a 0.90 ERA and Cody Anderson was 1-0 with 16 strikeouts in 11 innings, allowing one earned run in two starts.
Offensively, the Bulldogs have shown a balanced attack.
“We’ve cut down on our strikeouts a ton from a year ago,” Yoshino said. “Our strikeout ratio to at-bats I think has been sliced in half. Which again, I kind of expected because we’re older and more experienced.”
Through the first 10 games, the Bulldogs led the NWAC in doubles and were second in home runs.
“I think we have all the elements. I can have a speed lineup, but our strength is depth throughout the lineup with power,” Yoshino said. “We have threats batting in the seven and nine hole, in addition to 3-4-5.”
Centerfielder Dylan Vchulek, who led the entire NWAC in hitting as a freshman at .395, picked up where he left off, hitting .421 in the first 10 games. Infielder-pitcher Joe Wainhouse is off to a .368 start with a pair of homers and a team-high nine walks.
Leftfielder Evan Johnson, the top returning RBI producer, is second in RBIs and shares the team lead in doubles.
The left side of the infield, which had 25 errors between short and third in league game, also is much improved, Yoshino said.
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Last Updated December 18, 2020
