‘Something special is coming’ — Stadium has best baseball team in Tacoma this spring
Turns out, acceptance of a culture that leads to just a taste of success has a way of setting up a team for even more a year later.
For the Stadium Tigers baseball team, the fruits of a 2023 season fueled the motivation for an off-season of getting better that has resulted in a spring of 2024 that could last a long time into May.
“It was a struggle when we first started,” Stadium coach Justin Hinkle said. “We’ve been trying to build a family atmosphere with this team and it’s finally catching on where everybody is on the same page. Everything seems to be clicking right now. It’s fun to watch.”
The process physically started with strength and conditioning. As older guys graduated from Stadium teams that hadn’t enjoyed much success, new blood entered the program.
As recently as two years ago, Stadium finished the season having lost more games than it won. The Tigers were 6-11 in 2022. Until a year ago, Stadium hadn’t made the state bracket since 2007, when it won an opening round game, 19-12, against Woodinville before falling 4-0 to Tahoma in the 4A bracket.
The Tigers will again be in the 4A ranks come next spring, playing as part of the North Puget Sound League. They’ve enjoyed their last two years as a 3A school in the PCL, though.
Last spring, as a 14-seed, Stadium beat Gig Harbor in the opening round of state. Though they lost to West Seattle in Round 2, the Tigers got that taste of success.
“It’s the energy we’ve cultivated as a team,” senior first baseman Logan Judish said. “We’ve been working during the offseason together, putting in work on and off the field. It’s the consistent work. It’s been in the air, that energy, that something special is coming for this year.”
There certainly are challenges ahead for this baseball team. Just in the PCL, the Tigers are scheduled to face Bonney Lake on back-to-back days April 16 and 17, first at the Panthers and then at home. Bonney Lake currently is undefeated in league play at 8-0 and has two PCL series left.
Stadium is 9-0 in league after a 23-2 thrashing of Mount Tahoma on April 9, and is 12-1 overall. The Tigers only loss was an early-season, 4-2 defeat at Lake Washington.
“We’ve got the defense, we’ve got the pitching,” Hinkle said. “If our hitting comes along, I believe we can play with anybody.”
So far, they have. And the Tigers have done so in what some might call the old-fashioned way.
This Stadium team is pesky. They get a lot of hits, just not a lot of power hits. The team has yet to hit a home run this season. But they’ve stolen 76 bases in their first 13 games. That means the Tigers are averaging nearly six steals a game.
Three different players have a dozen steals – Jackson Noonan, Jesse Winkler and Tristan Luxenberg. Judish has 10.
“It’s not that everyone is so fast,” Hinkle said. “But by being a smart baserunner, you can get steals, too.”
Stadium has posted a team earned run average of 1.92. Yes, the Tigers are allowing less than two earned runs a game. The national average? 5.15.
Oh, and that ERA actually went up when the Tigers allowed two meaningless runs in the fourth inning against the T-Birds April 9. Stadium led that game 19-0 at the time.
Offensively, Judish is among the top three in most categories for the Tigers. It’s a familiar position for the senior, who along with Winkler and Noonan were major contributors even as sophomores on that 6-11 team and have been a part of the program’s transformation.
At his .436 batting average, with a team-high 17 hits and 20 runs batted in, Judish leads the parade from his No. 3 position in the batting order.
“I’ve definitely been working,” Judish said. “I love the game of baseball. Working in the offseason with my club team, Diamond Sports, and just developing. I know my guys, as well, have been doing that and getting better. It’s where we are. It’s where we’re going in the future.
Like the eight seniors on this team were just two years ago, sophomore Makhai Merton has shined in more limited opportunities. Merton actually leads Stadium with a .556 batting average. He’s not the only bright star coming for the future, however.
“It’s taken us a long time to get there,” Hinkle said. “But these guys have been playing together for the last three or four years now. Next year will be a whole different group. Our JV team is phenomenal. There are a lot of guys who will be up here and just step right in. First time, this year, we have a ‘C’ team in a long time.
“It’s growing. We’ve got the kids interested in playing. They’re supposed to be building us a brand new field at Peck. These kids have been waiting for a long, long time to get their own field. It’s exciting. We’ll see how far we can get this year.”