Although the minor league baseball season doesn’t get underway at John Thurman Field until April 9 when the Modesto Nuts host the Lake Elsinore Storm, the home of the Seattle Mariners’ Low-A affiliate was occupied by local ball clubs the past two weekends as they participated in the second annual High School Baseball Showcase.
On Saturday, one of those games featured the Hilmar Yellowjackets and the Patterson Tigers. And although the game was halted with the Tigers leading 4-2 after three innings due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, it was an hour and a half that many players said they won’t ever forget.
The sentiment was especially true for Hilmar starting pitcher Ryan Couchman.
With the ‘Jackets serving as the home team at the neutral site in the non-conference matchup, the junior had the unique experience of warming up in the Modesto Nuts’ bullpen, which features a large Seattle Mariners logo painted on the wooden wall separating the bullpen and the clubhouse. Although Couchman is a lifelong fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, his favorite player is Seattle’s Bryce Miller, who played seven games for the Nuts in 2021 (including a pair of starts at John Thurman Field) as he worked towards an eventual Major League debut in 2023.
“It’s cool to know that a lot of good players like Bryce Miller pitched here. He’s my favorite pitcher and I look up to him a lot,” Couchman said.
As the 6-foot, 170-pound right-hander took the same mound that Miller occupied nearly three years ago, Couchman admitted that there were some extra jitters.
“I just tried to keep myself calm and collected. I told myself to not let the situation get too big and to just do my thing,” he said.
Patterson put the pressure on Couchman almost immediately when Max Medina led off the game with a single before Noah Cozart and Tony Lomeli worked walks. After a strikeout, Couchman and the Yellowjackets had a prime opportunity to escape the bases loaded jam unscathed when Nate Lozao hit a grounder to the shortstop, but two runs scored when the putout delivery was dropped first baseman Brad Chipponeri.
Two more runs scored for the Tigers the next inning when Cozart smacked a two-run single up the middle to extend their lead to 4-0.
Cozart was also the starter opposite of Couchman, and was dealing with five strikeouts through the first two frames. The only batters that reached came courtesy of an error and a pair of catcher’s interference calls.
The Yellowjackets eventually found their groove in the third inning, staging a short rally before mother nature interfered. In the inning, senior Jackson Takhar put Hilmar on the board with an RBI base knock. Junior John Labno then stole home on a double steal before the grounds crew was called upon and the tarp was laid across the diamond.
“That was fun,” Couchman said with a smile as raindrops fell on his head.
Like Miller, Couchman features a fastball, curveball and changeup. He agreed with his head coach, Frank Hilliard, that he has the “stuff,” but needs to do a bit better job at commanding his pitches and attacking the strike zone.
“I just need to consistently be in the zone. It's my main focus right now,” Couchman said. “I use the fastball pretty heavily. I work my curveball off of that. But staying around the zone is really important for me right now because walks kill us. And errors behind walks really do.”
The Yellowjackets and Tigers have agreed to finish off the contest this Friday at 6 p.m. at Hilmar High School with the score and result remaining the same from the time the game was delayed Saturday. It is unclear if Couchman will return to the mound to officially finish his outing. Either way, he will always remember the first half of the contest.
“A memorable game for me, for sure, being here (at John Thurman Field),” he said. “Hopefully not the last.”
