CHIMACUM — The eight seniors on Chimacum’s baseball team will soon conclude careers that will leave them among the most decorated players in Cowboys history.
“Record-wise, they’re untouchable,” Chimacum coach Jim Dunn said. “It’s amazing.”
Including their 18 wins this season, the Cowboys are 76-9 since Landon Cray, Austin McConnell, Quinn Eldridge, Lucas Dukek, Carter Tjemsland, Victor Cienega, Brady Anderson and Egan Cornachione were freshmen in 2009.
Cray, McConnell, Eldridge and Dukek have been members of the varsity team all four years, with McConnell and Cray having started every game.
Along with the impressive overall record, the four Cowboys have also excelled in the postseason.
They placed third in state as freshmen and second as sophomores.
Last year they were state champions.
Heading into their 1A regionals matchup with Ridgefield on Saturday, Chimacum is four wins away from a second-straight state title.
With an 18-0 record, the Cowboys have another feat in the works: a perfect, undefeated season.
“Our main goal this year is to go undefeated and take the whole thing,” McConnell said.
“Undefeated without losing.”
He added the examination of the goal’s definition because, despite only losing nine times, Chimacum knows what it’s like to lose.
The 2010 championship game loss gets mentioned by the Cowboys almost as often as the win of last year’s title game.
It also might be as important.
“Getting second [place] was a lot worse than getting third, because you lose in the championship game,” Dukek said.
“You don’t even feel like you accomplished anything after getting second.”
The loss motivated the Cowboys in 2011, and they haven’t forgotten it this season.
“I know it helped us last year a lot,” McConnell said.
“We had a lot more we needed to gain. We had to win that thing because we lost it the year before.”
Despite their history and undefeated record this season, the Chimacum coaches and players are uncomfortable even discussing who will be the starting pitcher in Saturday’s second game, should they get past Ridgefield.
“We know we have some competitive teams coming up,” McConnell said. “Hopefully we get past this weekend.”
It isn’t that the Cowboys are wound up.
If anything, they’re the opposite.
“I think, if anything, it’s kind of taken pressure off us,” Cray said.
“We’ve got a lot more experience and are passing on to the younger guys what we’ve experienced through going to state all those years.”
Eldridge says Chimacum is used to playing in these big games.
“We’ve been there before, so we’re not nervous like we were when we were all freshmen,” he said.
“I think that helps, just because all the other teams they don’t have the experience we do, so I feel like they’ll be a lot more nervous, and nerves can come back to bite you.”
Dunn isn’t worried about nerves or expectations affecting the Cowboys.
“Pressure is overrated,” Dunn said. “Besides, we’ve got an even-keeled group.”
It is also a talented group.
Cray, who will play college baseball at Seattle University, is a three-time Nisqually League MVP, a three-time PDN prep baseball MVP and all-state selection, and was named the 2011 Class 1A/2B/1B player of the year by the Washington State Baseball Coaches Association.
He has pitched in the state tournament. So have McConnell and Eldridge.
The Cowboys also have Mike Nordberg, who Dunn has already tabbed as next season’s ace.
Before the season, Dunn proclaimed McConnell the best catcher on the west of the Hood Canal Bridge.
Dukek at first base, Nordberg at second, Cornachione at third and Eldridge at shortstop make up a solid defensive infield.
They can hit, too, with each player capable of producing.
Chimacum’s last game of the season, whenever it occurs, will mark the end of a era for the seniors that dates back further than their freshman season.
Other than Cornachione, who has been on the team for the last three seasons, the seniors have played baseball together since they were on youth teams.
They’ve won all along the way, but Eldridge said it’s important they win the four games required to earn another state championship.
“We’re best friends and we have the best time out there,” Eldridge said.
“So, we’re trying to get back and make this one memorable because it’s the last one we’ll ever play together.”
But they have to beat Ridgefield first.
The Cowboys and Spudders play at Volunteer Field in Anacortes at 10 a.m.
The winner will face the winner of the Cedar Park Christian vs. Kalama game at 4 p.m. the same day.
