Baseballs, beware: This Sumner lineup has legitimate thump
Sumner was trailing valley rival Puyallup at home on April 6 with just two innings to play, 12-5. For most teams, against perhaps the state’s top team, it would have been an impossible hill to climb.
But this Sumner lineup has some big-time thump. The Spartans batted around the order in the sixth and came back to win, 15-12. Jake Bresnahan hit a pair of home runs in the sixth inning to key Sumner’s furious rally and the energy was contagious.
“One guy will get us going and next thing you know, we’re just rolling and we just feed off each other’s energy,” said third baseman and outfielder Aden Dance. “Even when something doesn’t go our way, we’re always there to pick each other up and we’re just always in a good, positive vibe.”
Any win is fun, but beating your biggest rival, in that fashion? That was even sweeter, no question.
“Puyallup is extremely good and they’ve always been a rival so it was a huge moment for me, especially being in my senior year to be able to come back and just take kind of a big feat,” Dance said. “They’re a juggernaut of a team and to just kind of show our adversity and how hard we’ve been working as a team. It really meant a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to the guys and it meant a lot to the town as well just being able to do something like that.
Sumner is one of a handful of teams from the 4A South Puget Sound League that have a chance to make a deep state tournament run this spring. Spartans’ coach Casey Adcox, who has led the Spartans for the better part of two decades, said this year’s lineup is one of the best he’s had.
“It’s right up there,” Adcox said. “I think that what I like about them, they don’t think they’re just hitters. They don’t put all their eggs in that basket. But a lot of them have trained really hard in the weight room and a lot of what you’re seeing is kids that have put in the work, so when their bat arrives on time, good things happen. It ranks up there.”
Seven of Sumner’s hitters with at least 14 plate appearances are hitting above .300, led by junior outfielder Jay Mentink, a Princeton commit, who’s batting .471 with two doubles, a triple, two home runs and 17 RBI.
“One of the biggest things we’ve been working on is just understanding what kind of game we’re in and what kind of arms we’re going to see and just really preparing ourselves for what we’re going to do and just visualizing the kind of hits, the kind of takes and the kind of at-bats that will not only help ourselves but we do it for each other and to help the team,” Dance said.
Sumner is 9-2 on the season and 7-2 in the 4A SPSL. Senior right-hander Elijah Higginbottom, a Yakima Valley commit, leads the pitching staff with a diverse arsenal, mixing a fastball, curveball, slider and cutter. In 20 innings pitched, he has struck out 23 batters and allowed just five walks, compiling a 2.10 earned run average. Junior Jake Bresnahan has also had a strong season on the mound with a 1.94 ERA, punching out 27 batters to just nine walks.
“We just have a good group of guys,” Higginbottom said. “Collectively, this is a good group and a lot of talent on this team. I think we were really underlooked coming into the season but we’ve got a lot of talent all around, from top to bottom in our lineup, guys can hit and then our defense is stellar. We’ve got a lot of guys that can just play great defense and that’s huge.”
The win over Puyallup served as validation for all the work the players have put in during practice and offseason workouts.
“I think coming into the season we knew that Puyallup was the team to beat and we beat them,” Higginbottom said. “So that gives us high hopes heading into (the rest of the) season and I’m excited to see what we can do just because this is a different group of guys. I’ve never played on a team where everybody is so collectively in it. We’re in it to win, we’re not in it for ourselves. We love playing with each other and it’s so exciting.”
Correction: An earlier version of this article listed Elijah Higginbottom has a junior. He is a senior.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
