For the most part, teams at the top of the rankings do their best to ignore it, hoping to avoid any undue pressure.
Not so for Brookings-Harbor, which has held down the top spot in the OSAAtoday 3A baseball coaches poll for the past month.
“We’re embracing everything we’ve gotten so far,” coach Keith Wallin said. “To try to tell the kids not to look at the rankings is a waste of time. They’re going to look. To try to tell the kids, ‘Hey, don’t talk about being No. 1,’ that’s stupid. They’re going to talk.
“So we talk about what it takes to be where we’ve been able to stay for 4-5 weeks now.”
It’s relatively new territory for Brookings-Harbor, which hasn’t won a league title since 2007 and has never won a state championship. But the Bruins, who moved down from 4A this season, are making a strong case to be considered the 3A frontrunner.
Brookings-Harbor, which went 19-9 last season and lost to eventual champion Gladstone 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs, is 15-1 and threatening to break the school record for wins of 23, set in 1995 and matched in 2007. The Bruins are batting .352 and have a team ERA of 1.24.
“They bought into some new concepts this year, a new understanding on defense and supporting our pitcher,” said Wallin, a 2000 Brookings-Harbor graduate who is in his seventh season as head coach. “These kids seem to be pretty smart ballplayers and seem to understand that there are many different ways to get it done.”
The Bruins’ only win against a team ranked in the 3A top 10 is an 11-4 victory at No. 8 Taft on March 23. They also won at Reedsport 6-4 and Toledo 7-5, teams ranked third and ninth in 2A/1A, respectively. Their only blemish is a 6-2 loss to 4A No. 4 Banks.
Despite its No. 1 ranking, Brookings-Harbor is still trying to determine how it stacks up in 3A.
“We don’t know a whole lot about 3A,” Wallin said. “There are so many private schools we don’t get to see, especially in that Salem-Portland area, and to this day we just don’t know a lot about them. It’s kind of a big question mark.”
The Bruins returned seven starters from last season. Five of them are sophomores in second baseman Adam Shew, third baseman Andrew Burger, shortstop Payton Armentrout, catcher Jacub McCollum and outfielder Kayson Christensen. The other two are fourth-year starters in infielder Roman Worthey and right fielder Jon Kleespies.
Kleespies is hitting a team-best .400 and is tied with junior first baseman Jason Vanginderen for the team lead in RBIs with 18. Senior Brig Schofield is batting .378.
The pitching has been dominant. Worthey, who allowed one earned run in 12 playoff innings last year, is 2-1 with a 1.25 ERA. Shew (6-0, 0.89) and Burger (6-0, 1.30 ERA) have been a dynamic one-two punch in Friday doubleheaders.
Shew has struck out 53 in 31 innings. His brother, Anthony, was a standout high school pitcher in California and has climbed to Double-A in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. His second cousin, Ian Kennedy, pitches for Kansas City.
Armentrout, the nephew of former major leaguer John Kruk, provides speed at the top of the order. Shew and Worthey follow him, with Kleespies and Vanginderen batting 4-5.
The Bruins are tied with Sutherlin (9-7) for first place in Special District 4 at 6-0. The teams will meet for a three-game series to finish the regular season May 6 and 9.
“The league title is a big one for us,” Wallin said.
The Bruins are gaining confidence that they can make a deep run this season. They have appeared in the state final once, losing to Ontario 4-0 in 1995.
“Ever since that Gladstone game, our guys have been really excited for this season,” Wallin said. “At the end of the day, we just try to put together game plans and hope it’s good enough.”
