Vashon High School Pirates Baseball finished the season 8-11 overall and for the second year in a row finished 6-6 in league play.

The team played with heart this year, putting themselves in a position to not just make the playoffs but also to win the league with the last two league games. Unfortunately, the team came up a game short.

It was an exciting season with walk-offs, come from behinds and big plays. The Pirates were a little short on players this year and didn’t have a dedicated JV program, but did get a few JV games in coached by Scott Hitchcock — they played well, finishing 5-1.

A few Pirates had exceptional seasons and were recognized by the Nisqually League. Making 1st Team All Nisqually League were senior shortstop, pitcher and captain Ary Dulfer, who had a .420 batting average and an unbelievable team-high .586 on-base percentage with 22 stolen bases and 3 home runs. Junior 1st baseman and pitcher Alex Hitchcock had a .424 batting average and a team high 25 hits, and Junior 3rd baseman and pitcher Aidan McCann led the team with a .436 batting average, 18 RBI’s and on the mound, striking out 56 opposing batters.

Making 2nd Team All Nisqually League were junior catcher Jack Cunningham, who played excellent defense behind the plate while throwing out 15 runners, and junior right fielder Ryan Rice, who saved many games with 36 putouts, many of them big game-saving catches.

Nisqually League Honorable Mention went to sophomore designated hitter Mead Gill, who came in late but along with a couple of walk-off hits for wins, finished the season batting .348.

Congratulation to all these players for their hard work and dedication to Vashon Baseball. Looking ahead, from this year’s roster: next year we have a possible 8 Seniors, 5 Juniors, and 3 sophomores as well as 5 or 6 new freshmen maybe more. I am super excited for baseball on Vashon.

We would like to thank everyone who came out to support us this year. I would like to thank all our official Assistant coaches Greg McElroy and Jim Whitney as well as JV Coach Scott Hitchcock. Ray Patchen kept our stats right. We also were lucky to have former players Wyatt Yates and Andreas Stark stop by occasionally and help save the coaches arms.

Thanks to everyone who helps make Vashon High School Baseball successful. See you next year!

— Marc McCann is the Pirates’ baseball coach.