Prep baseball: Dimmock’s one-hitter gives Mavs 1-0 win over Hawks

In a game dominated by pitching, it was one swing of the bat that ultimately decided the outcome of a big match-up between Wesco League conference rivals on Wednesday.

Senior catcher Travis Hagan connected on a solo homer — the only run of the game — and the Meadowdale Mavericks defeated the Mountlake Terrace Hawks 1-0 in a contest played at Mountlake Terrace High School.

The win gave the Mavs a sweep of the Hawks in their two-game series this week and a two-game lead over Terrace at the top of the 2A/3A Wesco League South Conference standings.

Hagan’s dinger may have been the highlight of the day but did cause some confusion initially as the two game umpires had to consult with each other before ruling the blast had struck the foul pole in the left field corner, indicating a home run.

“I hit it and thought it was about 30 feet from the foul pole,” Hagan said after the game, “then I looked up a couple of seconds later and it was hooking foul. Nobody knew what was happening, so I just ran the bases. And then they called it.”

The ball could be heard striking something metal in the left field corner, but even Mountlake Terrace Coach Andrew Watters conceded that the sound was the ball hitting the foul pole.

“At first I thought it hit the fence,” Watters said. “It hit something and it stayed out (of the field of play). I think they got the call right.”

Hagan’s fifth-inning homer was the first hit for Meadowdale in the game off of Terrace starting pitcher Tanner Boe. With the Mavs not finding any success off the Hawk left-hander, Hagan was simply trying to get on base as he led off the Mavs’ half of the inning.

“On that home run I was just thinking right-center gap to lead it off,” Hagan explained. “I got a pitch on the inner-third (of the plate) and I got my barrel out to it and it was gone.”

Meadowdale’s Cole Nelson followed Hagan’s home run with a single to center field, but those were the only two hits that Boe gave up in the game.

While Boe retired 18 of the 21 batters he faced and struck out three, the Mavs pitching was even better on Wednesday. Meadowdale starter Tommy Dimmock pitched five-and-two-third innings, recorded 11 strikeouts, walked three and gave up just one hit — a fourth-inning single to Boe.

“He was outstanding,” Watters said about Dimmock. “He made the pitches when he needed to. We had some good at-bats against him, but when we had a chance to put a little pressure on him he made the pitches. So tip your hat to him. He’s just tough to hit.”

The Hawks loaded the bases with just one out in the fourth inning, but Dimmock got out of the jam with consecutive strikeouts of Terrace’s Dan Bingaman and Tyson Kim to end the threat.

Then in the sixth inning, Dimmock was relieved by Parker Cumberland with two outs  and a 3-2 count on the Terrace hitter, Boe. Cumberland threw one pitch and made it count, striking out Boe with a fastball.

“As a freshman, to throw one pitch and strike him out is huge,” Hagan said of Cumberland.

Cole Nelson pitched the seventh inning for the Mavs and retired all three Terrace hitters he faced to preserve the win and earn the save.

The victory was the seventh in the past eight games for Meadowdale, the only loss being an 11-1 loss against the Wesco League’s top 3A team, the 14-1 Arlington Eagles. Hagan and the Mavs have already been thinking about a rematch with the Eagles, possibly late in the postseason.

“Tommy (Dimmock) and I, after that game (the 11-1 loss to Arlington), talked about seeing them in the district championship — and we’re going to beat them,” Hagan said.

While the Mavs have allowed themselves to start thinking ahead a little bit to the playoffs that begin in May, Terrace will try to get over dropping two straight games to their Wesco League South Conference rival.

“That was tough,” Watters said about losing two to Meadowdale. “We wanted to get a split … but we didn’t. We’re going to have to regroup (on Thursday). We’ve got four games left in our regular season so we don’t have too much time to feel sorry for ourselves.”

Prep Baseball: Mountlake Terrace vs. Meadowdale, April 18

Terrace        0   0 0     0 0 0    0 — 0   1 0

Meadowdale        0   0 0     0 1 0    0 — 1   2 0

Winning pitcher: Tommy Dimmock (Meadowdale)
Losing pitcher: Tanner Boe (Mountlake Terrace)

Records: Mountlake Terrace 8-5 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 10-6 overall; Meadowdale 9-2 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 11-3 overall

Meadowdale next game: versus Marysville-Pilchuck, Friday, April 20, 4 p.m. at Meadowdale High School

–By Doug Petrowski

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