1. Who was the season MVP
Junior – Jack Thomson (Honorable Mention NWC at 3B)
2. Who was your team Cy Young?
Freshman – Brett Pierson
3. Any freshman or sophomores that stepped up to contribute this year. Please include a few sentences about them.
Sophomore – Justin Bailey
-Justin made some big strides this year, and really showed a lot of versatility moving from 2B to SS when our starter went down and making sure that we didn’t miss a beat at that position.
Freshmen – Brett Pierson
-Brett showed the ability to be one of the top starters in the conference, as he continues to develop over the next few years. He gave us a shot pretty much each time out, and that’s all we can ask for.
Freshmen – Luke Bass
-Luke will be one of the better hitters in the NWC by the time he is done, and showed some glimpses of that this season, hitting four homers and playing a solid LF.
Freshmen – Tyler Shimabukuro
-Despite not being on campus in the Fall, Tyler was one of our most consistent and reliable guys out of the pen, and eventually found himself in the rotation by the end of the season. He has a bright future ahead of him.
4. Juniors and/or seniors who stepped into leadership roles and had an impact on the team.
Senior Jacob Serafini
-Jacob has been a leader all four years, but really showed some extra leadership ability when he missed the last 1/2 of the season with an injury, but did not miss a beat as a leader of our team. He did a great job keeping our guys focused in a frustrating season.
Junior Jack Thomson
-Jack had always let the older guys take charge, despite being one of our best players, but this year made the decision to speak up and push the rest of his teammates. He already leads with his work ethic, but now does so vocally as well.
5. What were some key moments in the season for you and the team?
Our sweep of Linfield in the second week of the season.
-We weren’t able to play any pre-season games, and jumped right into conference against a very good Whitman team and struggled. So being able to bounce back the next week and win all four games on the road, was huge. It showed our guys what we are capable of when we put everything together.
Our sweep of Whitworth on the final day of our season.
-We had 11 seniors this year and high expectations that we hadn’t met. So, being able to finish the season on such a high note was a great way to finish the season for our seniors.
6. Your biggest take away from the 2021 season.
The NWC is the toughest conference in the country, hands down. Our program continues to get better, but so does the rest of the conference. We learned that if we are going to reach our goal of making the NWC Tourney, then we are going to have to double down on our work ethic to make that happen.
7. The outlook for the 2022 season.
We have a good mix of upperclassmen and a very solid group of young guys. Add to that the 8 quality freshmen we have coming in next year, and I am very confident that we can continue our progression upward and continue to climb the conference standings.