POULSBO — The players on this year’s Babe Ruth 15-year-old team wear the usual North Kitsap logo on their red and white uniforms, but a more appropriate symbol may be a bull’s eye.
This year, everyone in the state tournament will be gunning for the North Kitsap team, which last year, as 14-year-olds, finished third in the nation after playing in the Babe Ruth World Series.
At a recent tune-up tournament, manager Ollie Kenyon said, “Teams will come at us. We’re going to see everyone’s best pitcher.”
If that phases the players from North Kitsap, they do an excellent job of hiding it.
“I think we’re ready to play 15-year-old baseball,” said third baseman Nate Brown. “I think we’re ready for state.”
Brown and the other players have reason to be confident. Every player but one has returned from last year’s lineup and several of them have had hot starts on the tournament circuit, including Blake Buel (batting 13-for-18) and catcher Marcus Curtis (27-for-51 with nine doubles, two triples, and a pair of home runs).
“Everyone’s improved so much that I think even with losing one guy, we’ll be better as a team,” Kenyon said.
Along with Buel, Brown and Curtis, the players are Travis Tobin, Jeff Camus, Chris Williams, Jordan Henry, Miles Thomson Josh Beahan, Taylor Heins, Sean Carlson, Kevin Gartin, and Erik Gronnvoll. Of those players, pitchers include Thomson, Henry, Gartin, Beahan, Buel, and Carlson.
“We’ve got good pitching,” Brown said. “We don’t have many hurlers who strike guys out, but they keep the ball down and the defense takes care of it.”
The team has other advantages from last year, said coach Kenyon.
“We execute well offensively,” he said. “We bunt well, run well, and get the job done when it has to be.”
The secret, Kenyon said, is the team’s chemistry, which results from their familiarity with each other. Much of the squad has been playing together on teams most of their lives.
Kenyon also said the team has improved, with many of the players getting bigger and stronger, and some of the bench players progressing to the point where they will get more time this year.
Kenyon’s assistant coaches are Patrick Haley and Ryan Brown.
North Kitsap is hosting the Northern Washington Babe Ruth state tournament, meaning they won’t have to travel far from home … at least not yet. The regional tournament, which combines teams from several states, will be held this year in Rock Springs, Wyo. North Kitsap players hope they will have to pack their bags.
