CHIMACUM — Landon Cray finished his time at Chimacum the same way he began.
“He started his first day like he started his last day,” Chimacum baseball coach Jim Dunn said.
Dunn then expounded on his point.
“He dominated when he started and he dominated all the way through.”
For the fourth year in a row, Cray is the All-Peninsula baseball MVP.
He also won or shared the Nisqually League MVP award for the fourth time, and Chimacum made the state playoffs for the fourth time in Cray’s four years as a Cowboy.
It might seem like Cray breezed through his high school baseball career, but he doesn’t think so.
“I don’t like to look at it that way,” Cray said. “It definitely wasn’t easy.
“I had good teammates. If my teammates didn’t get on base, I couldn’t get RBIs. They push me to get better.”
Perhaps the most special thing about Cray’s run is what he accomplished with his teammates, many of whom he played with long before high school.
They were also part of what he considers his crowning achievement.
“I’m most proud of the state championship,” Cray said. “It was our goal since Little League.
“It was special.”
In Cray’s four seasons, the Cowboys’ win-loss record was 77-10. The final loss, to Kalama in the second game of regionals, ended their season sooner than anyone expected and was Cray’s earliest exit from the state playoffs.
But Cray said everything they accomplished was too great and it was all too much fun to let one loss put a damper on it all.
“It was tough because we were 19-0 at that point, and it was the end,” Cray said.
“But we didn’t look at it as a complete failure. We focused on the positive things we did.”
There were so many of those positive things that losing Cray will leave a void that will be all but impossible for Dunn to completely fill.
Ask the second-year skipper what he’ll miss most about Cray and he’ll respond with a question of his own.
“Personally or as a coach?”
“Personally — besides conversing with him every day — his attitude,” Dunn said. “He’s a good kid. He never had a problem with grades or talking back.
“As a coach, I’ll miss knowing that when he was on the mound we were going to win. If we scored one or two runs, we would win.”
Cray, the ace on a pitching staff loaded with aces, was 5-0 this season with 54 strikeouts and an incredible 0.26 ERA.
It was the fourth time he fanned at least 50 batters and this third season with a sub-2.00 ERA.
He was just as effective, if not more so, at the plate.
His batting average was .557, he scored 27 runs, drove in 14 more, belted three home runs and stole 12 bases.
He also played a great center field.
Cray said he’ll miss bus rides, off-field activities, practicing and playing with his teammates the most.
But he’s not lamenting the end of his high school days.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet,” he said. “It ran its course, I guess, and here we are.”
Next up for Cray is trading his blue Cowboys jersey for one worn by the Redhawks of Seattle University, where he’ll play outfield and pitch.
Dunn said his former star player has the potential to pick up where he’s leaving off.
“When you move up, you might struggle mentally,” Dunn said. “He has to be mentally prepared to struggle.
“Landon Cray isn’t used to failure. He isn’t used to hitting slumps. He’ll have to learn to handle those slumps, and pitching slumps.
“But, if he leads off and starts from the first day and hits .350, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
