Justin Gurnsey smiled from the dugout as he watched his team practice amidst a rainy Thursday afternoon last week. The day before, the Rainier Mountaineers High School baseball team was forced to cancel their season opener against non-conference opponent Rochester due to unplayable field conditions.
As the rain fell onto the already saturated field — and his players — the second-year head coach said he viewed the schedule shakeup as an opportunity to get better.
“It just gives us a little extra time to prepare,” Gurnsey said, admitting he was surprised at how quickly the season seemed to start once practices began. “We do have a very young group of players, so any extra practices are beneficial.”
Gurnsey and the Rainier Mountaineers are no strangers to early-season rainouts. It’s part of playing spring baseball in Western Washington, and many, if not all, teams are affected by day-of cancellations. The challenge comes with managing the latter part of the schedule.
“The bummer of it is that it really compacts a lot of the games later on in the year,” Gurnsey said. “So, our pitching gets used up a lot more. But every team’s going to be struggling with it, so it’s equal in that sense, but it’s really hard to space out your pitching, and making sure you have the right people on the hill at the right situation.”
When it comes to practicing through weather, Gurnsey prefers the field over the gym when possible.
“We just can’t do as much in the gym,” Gurnsey said. “At least here the kids can throw, air out their arms,” he added, before saying he hoped the rain would clear so they could work on other drills.
For Gurnsey, the main focus right now is fundamentals.
“The better prepared you are, the more confidence you’ll have, and we just want to put these guys through as much skill development as we can,” he said. “And we’ve got a good group of senior leaders with Dayton [Gardner] and Hunter [Howell], who have a lot of good skills, so these kids can learn from them as well.”
For senior pitcher Hunter Howell, the rainout gives the team more time to teach the younger players.
“It gives us an opportunity to know where we’re at and work on stuff we weren’t able to,” Howell said.
Fellow senior pitcher Dayton Gardner agreed.
“We get to fix our little flaws that we have so far and just try to work them out before the first game,” Gardner added.
About halfway through practice, the rain ceased. Soon after, the sun broke through the clouds. Gurnsey had already joined his team well before that, hitting pop flies to his outfielders and overseeing work in the batting cages. The smile remained on his face, as he offered pointers and words of encouragement.
“I try to tell them you’re rooting for your teammates and you’re competing to be the best that you can be,” Gurnsey said.
The Mountaineers began their season with an 8-2 conference loss against Mossyrock on Friday, March 14, at Rainier Elementary School. Howell recorded nine strikeouts in just three innings pitched, despite walking five batters. Dayton Gardner, Yazama Gurnsey and Shane Cardey all pitched in relief for the Mountaineers. Howell and Gurnsey scored the lone runs.
The next home game for the Mountaineers was scheduled for Wednesday, March 19, against conference opponent Toutle Lake. Results were unavailable before press time.
