Tahoma’s Kaelan Nesel throws first perfect game in school history against Decatur
The home plate umpire approached Kaelan Nesel in the dugout in the sixth inning of Tahoma High School’s game against Decatur on Friday, March 25, ready to congratulate Nesel on throwing a perfect game.
The only problem? There was still another inning to be played.
“He was thinking the game was over,” said Nesel, a senior pitcher for Tahoma. “My teammates kind of shooed him away.”
Three outs later, the umpire had a chance to make good on that congratulations, as Nesel sat down the final three Decatur batters, throwing the first perfect game in school history.
“It was a bit euphoric to do it,” Nesel said. “It was a team effort. I had 13 strikeouts and there were 21 plate appearances. That means eight of those plate appearances were outs from my teammates as well, whether it be a ground ball or a fly ball.”
Two of those eight defensive plays stood out most. In the fourth inning, right fielder Noah Lee had a diving catch and in the seventh inning (high school baseball in Washington plays seven-inning games), center fielder Chase Easter sprinted to make another diving catch to preserve the perfect game. About that Easter catch — he may have bailed Nesel out of a pitch he didn’t locate well.
“I was in that 80-90 pitch count range and left a curveball hanging,” Nesel said. “I had my team backing me up, so I tried to stay in the zone with my pitches.”
Nesel didn’t do anything out of the ordinary during his pregame warmup, he said. Strangely enough, he wasn’t hitting his spots during his pregame bullpen warmup.
“I felt a little off, I guess,” he said.
Sometimes all it takes is a little positive encouragement. His pitching coach told Nesel he was going to pitch a great game.
“It’s funny looking back on it,” Nesel said. “I just turned the dial when I went out there.”
His team, superstitious as most baseball players, didn’t talk about the perfect game at any point. They took it a step further: they didn’t even get near Nesel, physically.
“I was on the right side of the dugout and they were all on the other side,” said Nesel, laughing.
At any level, a perfect game is a rare accomplishment. No-hitters are more common, since they can include walks. In Major League Baseball, only 314 no-hitters have been thrown. Only 23 perfect games have been thrown in MLB history — the most recent by former Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Felix Hernandez, in 2012.
“I just want to make sure to say it’s a team effort and to give a shoutout to my catcher Carson Ohland, who did really well stealing some strikes for me with his frame jobs,” Nesel said.
Tahoma is off to a 7-2 start this year and was listed as a team to watch in The News Tribune’s 2022 spring baseball preview.
