At the beginning of the baseball season in February, the Bishop Blanchet were not sure what to expect for the season. They were a middle tier team with a little upside.

“Personally, I thought we wouldn’t make it out of Metro playoffs,” said Senior Sam van Hollebeke.

The team got off to a rocky start, unable to click as a team for the first few games.

“I was pretty down about the season at the beginning to be honest,” said Senior Conor Lamb.

However, things began to change as they became more consistent. They lost games to the big teams like Odea and won games they were supposed to win.

“The whole season changed after the Eastside Catholic game,” said Junior Luke Rican.

In the final game of the season, the Braves took down highly-ranked Eastside Catholic.

“After the game, some of the Eastside players started heckling us, saying “you won’t do anything in the playoffs,”” said Lamb. “I thought that was pretty ironic because it motivated us through the next few games.”

After defeating Bainbridge in the first round, they moved on to face the almighty Lakeside team which featured the #6 ranked player in the nation for the Class of 2019. Losing 4-1 in the last inning with two outs, the Braves pulled off a miraculous victory to win the game 5-4. After losing to Ingraham, the team clinched a spot in the state tournament with a victory over Ballard. In a long battle in the first round of the state tournament against Gig Harbor, they unfortunately lost 2-1 on a walkoff hit.

“This season exceeded my expectations and the trip to state was the perfect way to end my high school career,” said Senior Luke Buccher.