Sumner starter Jacob Bresnahan has delivered elite performances for Spartans this spring

Sumner High School starter Jacob Bresnahan has been shutting down opposing offenses throughout his baseball career with the Spartans.

The senior left-hander has pitched on the varsity staff since he was a sophomore. He was a Class 4A South Puget Sound League first-team selection by the end of an impressive junior season, in which the Spartans reached the 4A state quarterfinals.

Now a Division I-bound recruit, Bresnahan will surely continue to make an impact for the Spartans on the final weekend of his high school career. He has been a top contributor — on the mound and in the batter’s box — all season in helping Sumner reach the 4A state tournament’s final four.

He’s tossed gem after gem in 10 outings (nine starts) on his way to a 7-1 record and 1.15 ERA.

There was a stretch in April when Bresnahan piled up three consecutive scoreless starts, striking out 13 batters in a win over Emerald Ridge, 11 in a victory against Curtis and a career-high 19 of 23 batters faced in a shutout of defending 4A state champion Olympia.

He’s struck out 81 batters in 55 innings this spring to pace the Spartans’ pitching staff.

When Sumner returned to the 4A state bracket weekend in Richland, the Oregon signee delivered again, tossing an eight-inning complete game to lift the No. 11 seed Spartans past No. 6 West Valley of Yakima in the opening round.

Bresnahan didn’t give up an earned run in another stellar performance, allowing only four hits and two walks while striking out seven. Five of those strikeouts were in the fifth inning or later.

He leaned on his fastball early in the game, he said, before keeping the Rams off-balance with his changeup and curveball later on.

“I was able to mix up pitches later in like the fifth, sixth, seventh inning,” Bresnahan said. “That’s when I honestly was getting more strikeouts was when I mixed a lot more off-speed. So, that helps create a new look that they weren’t used to seeing throughout the game.

“I almost changed as a pitcher throughout the game from fastball-heavy to way more changeups, and I threw probably the most curveballs I’ve thrown all season that game, so that helped a lot to keep them on their toes so they didn’t know exactly what’s coming.”

It all resulted in an eventual 2-1 win to send Sumner to the quarterfinals later in the afternoon, and the Spartans built off that early momentum with a second extra-innings victory, upsetting No. 3 Richland, 8-4, in nine frames.

The Spartans (18-8) reached the state semifinals for the first time as a 4A program with the second victory.

“It was exciting for sure,” Bresnahan said.

Bresnahan’s impressive outing to lead off a historic Saturday is the type of performance coach Casey Adcox and the Spartans have seen throughout the past three years.

High school baseball was not played in Washington when Bresnahan was a freshman — the entirety of the spring season was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic — but he earned a starting role as a sophomore.

He was already making strides then, and his junior year “is when he was really making the jump,” Adcox said. Sumner saw the potential Bresnahan had early on.

“It’s pretty rare to have a kid who’s got that clean of a delivery and the arm action at that young of an age,” Adcox said.

Bresnahan’s work ethic and commitment to continue improving throughout his high school career also helped lead to impressive results.

“He has a desire to be great beyond Sumner, as do many of these kids on our team,” Adcox said. “ … They want to be up amongst the best.”

Bresnahan’s fastball has reached as high as 92 mph this season, and he also throws two solid secondary pitches in his changeup and curveball.

“His changeup is very advanced for a kid his age,” Adcox said. “It’s a very quality pitch. … His command of his changeup is really good, and it looks just like his fastball coming at you.”

Bresnahan said he’s also worked a lot the past year on continuing to develop his curveball.

“He threw a couple of really good ones last weekend and the weekend before, and that’s just going to make him even more dominant,” Adcox said.

Beyond pitching, Bresnahan has also played first base and right field, and been one of Sumner’s keys to producing runs on offense.

Bresnahan has at least one hit in 23 of Sumner’s 26 games, six multi-hit games, a .385 batting average and has reached base safely in every appearance. He has 19 runs scored, 11 doubles, four home runs, 31 RBI, 17 walks and three stolen bases.

“Being able to hit, and still help when I’m not pitching means a lot,” he said.

Sumner plays 4A SPSL and valley rival No. 2 Puyallup in the 4A state semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday at Funko Field in Everett. Each of the four remaining teams in the state bracket is guaranteed two games this weekend, with the winners of the semifinals moving on to Saturday’s championship game.

To keep playing into the final weekend of his final season “is amazing,” Bresnahan said, and he is grateful for the chance to play two more games with the Spartans.

“We get to play more games,” he said. “Us seniors, we know we’re not done playing high school baseball forever, so there’s a lot of good energy.”