Bellevue College baseball, coming off a pre-season NWAC TicketSmarter Coaches’ Poll ranking of #4, took their opening series of the year winning three of four against former North Region foe, Olympic. Freshman Brandon McKinley was the highlight of the weekend, belting three home runs in his first three hits of his college career. Two were in one game in a 12-3 win on Friday before a solo shot in game three at Olympic.
In the season opener, jitters got the best of pitching and defense as the Bulldogs committed six errors in a 12-2 loss. The only earned run was charged to freshman Skyler Lynch, who turned in the top outing of the game, walking only one and giving up one hit while striking out three in his college debut. Lynch, who is the brother of BC’s ace last year Ryan Lynch, who was first-team ABCA All-American, threw his debut in only his third outing off a mound in over a month after recovering from a severe dog bite in his throwing arm.
Game two was a rebound 12-3 win led by McKinley and freshman righty Tristan Aasland. McKinley hit a two-run shot halfway up the trees in the fifth and a grand slam in the seventh. Aasland, whose parents Brian and Erin (Lanigan) Aasland were standouts for Bellevue in baseball and basketball respectively, and whose sister Gwen recently finished a stellar two-year career for BC women’s basketball last year, carried on the family tradition with a dominating eight strikeout shutout over four innings of work in his first college start. He struck out the side in both the second and third inning.
In game three, McKinley continued his power surge with a solo shot to put Bellevue up 1-0 as BC cruised to a 7-0 win. Gibby Marshall-Inman, R’Mani Adams, and Noah Deese combined for the shutout as Marshall-Inman and Deese made their long-awaited college debuts after redshirting last year. Bryan Sfanos had three hits.
In the final, BC won a thrilling 3-1 extra inning affair won on the international tie-breaker rule; BC’s first win ever using the alternative NCAA extra-inning method. With BC’s JJ Diaz starting the 10th inning at second base, Gavin Yost delivered a perfect bunt for a hit to put runners at the corners with no outs. The Bulldogs would plate two as Casey Sabiers came through with clutch pitching and defense as a pitcher on several pitching fielding plays to throw four shutout innings for the win. Micah Hagler kept BC in the game early with four solid innings as the starter before giving way to Drew Welk, who tossed two shutout innings of middle relief.
The Bulldogs are 3-1 and travel to Longview, site of their final game of last spring at the NWAC Championships, to take on defending NWAC Champion and pre-season top-ranked Lower Columbia in a four-game series starting Sat. Feb. 24. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. tentatively but may be moved up if ideal weather is in the forecast. Any revisions will be made later this week.
Last Updated February 18, 2024
