‘Really impressive.’ Young Steilacoom baseball team wins first title in 20 years
For the first time in 20 years, the Steilacoom High School baseball team is the league champion.
Steilacoom beat Clover Park in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-3 and 8-2, to win the 2A SPSL regular season title. It’s the program’s first league championship since the 2005 season.
“We’re young, we’re way ahead of where I thought we would be,” Steilacoom coach Corey Widman said.
Steilacoom lost star pitcher Micah Bujacich to graduation last year and logic said the Sentinels would most likely take a step back this spring. This year’s group, led by pitchers Colman Balda and Jason Hugo and a Seth Tchobanoff, Drew Macdonald and Ethan Ruhl-led middle of the order, didn’t get the memo.
“Our culture, the guys really bought into the team first, ‘We before me,’” Widman said. “They did a really good job this year of executing jobs. … I think in baseball, errors or mistakes, it tends to get people to tense up. … We did a really good job not letting things cascade and snowball on us. For a young team, it’s really impressive.”
Steilacoom (14-5 overall, 11-3 SPSL 2A) takes the No. 2 seed into the Class 2A District 3 tournament, which begins on Tuesday. Steilacoom receives a bye into the quarterfinals and will face the winner of Eatonville and Port Angeles.
In Wednesday’s 8-2 title-clinching win over Clover Park, Jason Hugo was dominant on the mound, ringing up 10 strikeouts in six innings of work. Designated hitter Seth Tchobanoff went 3-for-4 with three RBI and a run scored.
Widman credits the buy-in from the players and the culture that has been established at Steilacoom for the program’s success this spring.
“It’s a testament to the hard work the kids put in,” he said. “A lot of them play select ball all year long. … When you get here, it’s all about Steilacoom baseball. Love the guy next to you, get to know, play hard for them. The boys played into that.”
A moment before taking a celebration photo after the title-clinching win on Wednesday, one of Steilacoom’s players shouted, ‘Hold up a 1-4!” It was a nod to the jersey number of former Steilacoom player Reese Widman, Corey Widman’s son. Reese died by suicide on Jan. 7, 2023.
Since then, Corey Widman has made it his mission to raise mental health awareness whenever and wherever he can.
“Reese said this was gonna happen,” Widman said of the program winning a league title at some point. “The boys that remember him have done a good job continuing his spirit, his love for the team and his love for baseball.”
