Ever since the Inglemoor High baseball team bowed out early from last year’s 4A Kingco Tournament after reeling off a Crown-division-leading 14-2 league season, the Vikings have set their sights on avenging last year’s disappointment.

While the senior-laden Vikings look good on paper, that’s only enough to put them in the mix against the ultra-competitive Kingco league with the likes of preseason favorite Redmond (No. 2) along with powerhouse Newport (No. 3), with Bothell, Issaquah, Skyline and Woodinville also on the radar.

Head coach Bryan McNaghten will be the first to admit that his lineup has some holes and is not the most offensively threatening in the league, but he also knows that the Vikings’ real strength this year is their pitching.

“We’ve never had the top-end pitching like we have this year,” he admitted. “We’ve had to piecemeal it over the years, and we’ve had good pitching, but (this year) we’ve got a lot of guys that can do pretty good if they can stay healthy.”

Heading the list of Inglemoor’s aces is Dustin Doucette, a second-team all-league selection last year. The flamethrower struck out 47 last year in 12 appearances while posting four wins and a 3.14 ERA.

Adding to the rotation are returning seniors Obadiah “Obi” Taylor and Emmett Maki, who have been tearing it up on the mound so far this season. Coming into the week of March 28, Maki (2-0) was yet to give up an earned run in eight innings pitched, and Taylor, who was the team’s MVP as a sophomore, is coming off a 6-2 win against Sammamish during which he did not allow a run.

“So far, so good,” said McNaghten on his starting pitching. “Three of (our first four games) were against top-10 teams, and we’ve held our own just fine.”

On offense, the Vikings may not have the lights-out power of a team like Redmond, but they still have quite a few weapons at their disposal.

The early-season catalyst for Inglemoor has been junior catcher Blake Wilson, who is leading the team at .429 and six hits.

“Blake’s doing great, he’s been swinging the bat well,” said McNaghten. “We faced a couple pitchers in recent games that have absolutely beat us… but that’s going to happen, that’s baseball. I think our offense is pretty good.”

While he hopes his team’s batting averages will rise along with the warmer spring weather, another big threat will be shortstop Mitchell Gunsolus, the starting quarterback for the Vikings’ football team and the team’s only returning first-team all-league selection.

In his first start of the season last Friday, Gunsolus went 2-for-2 with a triple and scored twice to lead the Vikings to a 6-2 win over Sammamish.

In addition, two of catcher Adam Mosebar’s four hits have cleared the fence, and senior Peter Meuisi has also hit a four-bagger, proving the Vikings do have some pop, but the team knows that its offensive success will mostly rely on its ability to play small ball.

“We’re not going to be able to smack the ball around the park, so we’re just going to have to work that much harder for each one of our runs,” said senior Conner Savage. “And play together as a team in order to achieve what we want to.”

After the graduation of players like power hitters Scott Meyers and Ethan Yeo, who both batted .397 last year and combined for 57 runs batted in, the Vikings will need solid contributions from some untested players to contend.

“We have to fill the voids,” McNaghten said. “If guys can step up and fill the voids where we’re missing, we’ll be as competitive as anybody. Teams like Bothell and Woodinville, they don’t have holes. I think we will, but that’s going to be the key, whether our seniors can get us there or not.”

As for team goals, the Vikings simply want to get out of Kingco, which is far easier said than done. In 2009, the Vikings plodded along at a 8-8 clip in league play and ended up making the state tournament, while last year’s 14-2 outburst saw them fall short after losing to Bothell 12-6.

“It’s a dogfight,” commented McNaghten on the difficulty of the Kingco conference. “It just shows that this league can compete with anybody.”

And the Vikings themselves, led by pitching and experience, hope they can prove the same and find themselves knocking on the door to Safeco Field and the 4A state semifinals.

“We feel pretty confident,” said senior Alex Morrow. “We want to come out and compete, and give it our best effort, but it’s just going to depend on how we mesh as a class, and a team, how we come together and win games.”

Added senior Garrett Vandiver, “(We can’t make) mental errors. We just gotta stay focused and do the small things to get the job done.”