HarbourCats heating up in the NWAC

Jamie Umbinetti
Photo by Kevin Clark

It has been a couple of weeks since we last updated you on the 2015 HarbourCats who play in the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC), so let’s get you caught up on what our boys have been up to lately.

Sophomore Jamie Umbinetti of Edmonds Community College finally ended his power outage and slammed his first two doubles of the season in a March 28th doubleheader against Bellevue College. In the last two weeks, Umbinetti has gone 4-for-10 with four walks and three RBI in Edmonds’ four games. He continues show incredible plate discipline with a team-leading 20 bases on balls, eight more walks than anyone else on the Tritons. All of those free passes have boosted Umbinetti’s on-base percentage to a spectacular .534 mark. He’s hitting .313 with one homer and 9 RBI in 48 at-bats this season.

Zander Clouse continues to pitch extremely well for Bellevue College. In a March 28th game against Edmonds CC, he posted his second consecutive outstanding outing, giving up only one earned run on three hits in seven innings pitched. Clouse came back to earth on Saturday against Shoreline Community College, however, as the sophomore had his first bad outing of the year and was lit up for seven earned runs on eight hits in 5 ⅔ innings on the hill. As was the case with his March 28th start, Clouse struck out seven and only walked two batters. Even after his hard-luck outing this weekend, Clouse still has excellent season stats: a 4-1 record in five starts with a 2.31 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP in 35 innings pitched. He has also notched a save this year.

John Naff is back on track

We knew it was just a matter of time, but Everett’s John Naff has finally broken out of his lengthy slump. The sophomore first baseman, who will play in the outfield this summer for the HarbourCats, went 7-for-20 with four walks, three RBI and six runs scored over the last two weeks. The outburst helped Naff raise his batting average by 60 points, and he is now hitting .212 with one homer and four RBI in 66 at-bats this season. Has also leads the Trojans with 12 walks, giving him a very respectable .333 on-base percentage. Now that he is on a roll, look for Naff’s batting average to rise back over its usual .300 level.

Curtis Bafus of Everett Community College followed up his first career collegiate start with another dominant outing, this time a gem against Skagit Valley College on March 29th. Bafus only allowed three men to reach base in eight scoreless innings and he limited Skagit Valley to one hit and no walks while striking out five batters. His third career collegiate start was yesterday, but unfortunately Bafus ran into some difficulty against the tough Canadian hitters in the Douglas College (New Westminster, BC) lineup. The freshman only lasted 2 ⅔ innings against the slugging Canucks, giving up five earned runs on six hits and three walks with no strikeouts. Bafus is still having a great season in spite of yesterday’s setback, as he now sports a 2-2 record with a 3.27 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 22 innings pitched. The fact that he has only walked six batters and struck out 19 makes it pretty clear that the strong start to his collegiate pitching career is no fluke.

Freshman pitcher/outfielder Kyle Francis’ playing time is starting to dry up. He made only one appearance on the mound for Everett CC in the last two weeks, an April 2nd start against Skagit Valley College in which his control issues continued to surface. Francis lasted only 3 ⅓ innings in that outing, giving up three earned runs on six hits and three walks without striking out a single batter. He now has a (flattering) 3.04 ERA in spite of an ugly 1.61 WHIP in 23 ⅔ innings on the mound. He has also walked more batters than he has struck out (15 walks versus 11 K’s). Francis made only one start in right field and and one at DH over the last seven games, going 1-for-7 with an RBI over that span. For the season, he has posted an anemic .206 / .250 / .206 slash line (BA / OBP / SLG) in 34 at-bats.

Entering today’s action, Everett CC and Douglas College were tied for first place in the NWAC North Region standings with identical 4-2 records in conference play. The defending NWAC champions, Edmonds Community College, is tied for third place with a 2-2 mark.

HarbourCatNip

• The HarbourCats announced on social media earlier this week that left-handed pitcher Matt Fish of Pierce College will not pitch for them this summer due to academic reasons.