Braves baseball season ends with twin setbacks

They say 90 per cent of success is just showing up.

The La Conner High baseball team, sidelined for the 2019 and 2020 seasons, reached the 90 per cent mark this spring with a rebuilt young roster loaded with eighth graders and freshmen.

The next step for veteran co-coaches Jeremiah LeSourd and Andy Otis is to bring the team the remaining 10 per cent during what hopefully will be a full schedule next spring.

The Braves dropped their final two games of a modified and shortened 2021 varsity season with conference losses last week to Darrington and Coupeville, finishing the five-week campaign winless in 10 starts.

But this was a year that LeSourd and Otis, who had previously guided La Conner to deep post-season runs, were not measuring success in terms of wins and losses.

“The goal this year,” LeSourd said Saturday, “was to give these kids a chance to play. Next year it will be giving them a chance to win.”

The first step will be to line up summer baseball opportunities for La Conner’s returnees, many of whom are underclassmen, LeSourd said.

LeSourd and Otis gave all their players a chance to play in a 29-0 shutout defeat to conference power Coupeville. Despite the lopsided score, the

Braves coaches saw things they liked. Among them were:

• Starting hurler Tarquin Heartbroker tossing a solid first frame, yielding just one unearned run;

• Frosh reliever Kenai Zimmerman closing the game by fanning five batters while issuing just two walks over two innings;

• Logan Burks making a fine running catch of a drive to deep centerfield with the bases loaded in the top of the second; and

• Ivory Souryavong and Mason Wilson lining singles to break up a no-hit bid by Coupeville lefty Hank Wolfe, who was masterful throughout mixing curves and change-ups with fastballs on the corners.

La Conner was undone by fielding miscues during marathon second and third innings when Coupeville plated all but five of its scores. The Wolves fueled a potent attack with 14 base hits, a dozen of them delivered from the second through fourth innings.

The Braves had showed flashes of solid play Friday at Darrington, bolting to a 3-0 lead before falling 16-6.

“We’re in the process of establishing a team,” said LeSourd, whose program was shelved two years ago due to low numbers and last season because of COVID-19. “This year can be the bridge to where we want to be.”