Eastlake athletes ready for season
March 12, 2013
By Lillian O'Rorke
Now that Eastlake High School houses not only seniors, juniors and sophomores, but freshman too, the spring sports teams are looking forward to an even better 2013 season. Here’s a look at Wolves baseball and tennis.
Baseball
It could shape up to be a good year for the Eastlake baseball team, which returns a strong lineup of seniors who have played on varsity for their entire high school career.
And along with his seven returning upperclassmen, coach Kevin Agnew is also looking forward to working with fresh talent.
“A few of our key newcomers saw KingCo experience last season and we are looking to the returners for leadership,” he wrote in an email. “We are also very excited to have our freshmen class in the building and in our program for the first time ever.”
Senior Josh Barokas and junior Mick Vorhof will anchor what should be a strong pitching lineup, he added. Agnew is also eyeing senior Ryan Pladson, who spent about half of his time last year starting at third base, for the team’s starting catcher. Also returning to the team is senior outfielder Michael Staudinger and junior infielder Mason Pierzchalski, who started the majority of his games as a sophomore at first base.
Grant Beahm, Max Escarda, Carson Iraola and Austin Hooker may have all saw limited action during the 2012 season, wrote Agnew, but all four of them had outstanding summer seasons and have looked very strong in the opening two weeks, he added.
Competing for spots in the pitching rotation are Connor Graham, Evan Purdy and Jake Brewer. Other newcomers to note, the coach pointed out, are Kirk Boe, a junior infielder and Jack Destefano, a senior utility player.
“Jack is a very hard worker and will be a great role player for us this spring,” wrote Agnew.”
Eastlake was set to kick off the season March 12 with a conference game at Interlake. Taking a break from league play, the boys host Snohomish at 6 p.m. March 13 and travel to Yakima for a game March 15.
“Our League is very, very competitive every year,” wrote Agnew. “We move into a new division with Woodinville, Inglemoor, Bothell and Redmond. There is really not a night off when it comes to the quality of the teams we play and the coaches that we face.”
Eastlake Tennis
The face of Eastlake tennis is young this year with three of the Wolves’ four singles players being freshman and sophomores.
But age has never slowed down Katie Park, who started as Eastlake’s No. 1 singles last year as a sophomore. She returns this season after a promising post season last year that advanced her to the semifinals in KingCo, where she eventually finished third in the tournament.
Also making up the varsity team this year is No. 2 singles Michelle Knutson, a sophomore; No. 3 singles Nicole Yen, a freshman and No. 4 singles, sophomore Ashwathy Goutham.
Team captains and seniors Neha Singh and Wendie Yeung will head up the doubles teams, which also include Lilia Rodriquez, Paulina Montiel, Shabina Rayan, Amber Vander Kooi, Nicole Knutson and Vibha Vadlamani.
Eastlake finished league play last season with a 6-4 record and return March 13 to start the 2013 season at Inglemoor High School.
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