O’Dea baseballs unorthodox path to the State tournament.

O’Dea baseball all seasons have been swinging for the fences. And in the past month, it has played off. The season started off slow for the team as they lost 4 games to start the season. This was the worst start to the season that O’Dea baseball has ever had. Historically, O’Dea baseball is a Metro league powerhouse that has been dominant in the past 10 years.

After the team’s poor start to the season, the players had to have a long hard look at themselves and their team. They realized that to start the season, they were not playing for each other, but rather for themselves to be the best.

The team had a team meeting after their bad start and now they had to change something. They started playing by the motto “We over me.” To start the season, the players were playing individually, only caring about how they individually played.

After the teams meeting, they started to turn the season around as they started playing as a whole team not just as individuals.

A player that stepped up this season is Senior Tyler Bugbee. Bugbee is a center fielder for the team that broke out this year. Last season, Bugbee had a poor OBP of .150. this year though, Bugbee has blossomed into one of the best hitters on the team. This year, he has an OBP of .437 . Last summer, Bugbee really worked on his game. He realized that last season, he was very much in his own head. Over the summer, he worked on his mental fortitude wile at bad.

“But this year, with mostly mental changes over skill changes, I have increased my batting average,” Bugbee said about what he did to change his approach to hitting.

The team is now in te first round of stat playoffs after upsetting number one seeded privet school, Bishop Blanchet. The win came off of a selfless play by sophomore star Hordan Holloway as he bunted in the winning run to send the team back to the state tournament. That play by Holloway embodies the team’s motto of “We over me.”

The team’s upcoming game in the first round of the playoffs is agains Ferndale highschool. Ferndale has a great team this year with good hitters. This being said, they play in a lower level of play in the Wesco league. Ferndale has not seen anyone at the caliber of O’Dea pitchers.

“This will give us the advantage as they haven’t seen pitchers as good as Basil and Quincy,” said Bugbee.

There next game if they take care of business against Ferndale is agains the number one seed in the state tournament Kennewick.

The team all year have been playing their hearts out and they will definitely not stop now. There game against Ferndale is on Saturday at Kennewick.