QUILCENE — The youthful Quilcene baseball team, with two starters not quite in high school, has a win and a tie so far this early season.
The Class 1B Rangers play in the mostly 2B Sea-Tac League and must finish in the top two of the four 1B teams in league to advance to the state playoffs.
First-year head coach Forrest Thomson, an assistant to the program for the past six years, sees a lot of promise in this young team.
The Rangers showed that promise in pounding 2B Chief Leschi 18-0 and also taking 1B Mount Rainier Lutheran to a 3-3 tie after nine innings.
The Mount Rainier game, extremely important for playoff implications, was called because of darkness at Mount Rainier in Tacoma.
Quilcene plays each 1B team in league twice. It will host Mount Rainier on April 17.
“I don’t know if we will finish the first game at this or not,” Thomson said.
“They want to finish it at Mount Rainier.”
In other games so far this year, the Rangers (1-3-1) lost 7-2 to 2B Rainier Christian, 15-1 to defending 2B state champion Seattle Lutheran and 14-3 to 1A Chimacum’s JV team.
Quilcene will host two games this week, including 2B Tacoma Baptist today and 2B Chief Leschi on Friday.
All home games start at 3:45 p.m.
The Rangers are led by sophomore left-handed pitcher Jacob Pleines, who is sporting a 1.59 ERA in 17 innings with 34 strikeouts and only two walks.
He’s averaging two strikeouts per inning.
Pleines plays first base when he isn’t pitching.
Junior Lucas Murphy is the backup pitcher and top hitter, batting .400 with five RBIs in the first five games.
Senior team captain Angel Perez, meanwhile, “plays a solid second base,” Thomson said, and has a .444 on-base percentage.
“Angel also is a great leader,” Thomson said.
Starting for the Rangers are two strong eighth-graders.
“We are very young,” Thomson said.
A.J. Prater starts at the important shortstop position, while Nate Weller plays at first base and right field.
“A.J. Prater is a pretty solid little hitter,” Thomson said.