There are many dynamic duos at Lakeland High School when it comes to sports. Certain athletes run the same event on track alongside their best friend, have a long-time doubles partner in tennis or play soccer with one another.
This year, there is returning duo that is unique to Hawks baseball, as they are the only brothers on the field.
Raiston and Tadhg Ellwood are siblings and have been playing together for about 12 years. They both pitch and play outfield and are crucial components of Al Bevacqua’s varsity team.
Aside from these identical factors, potentially the most essential of them all is the Ellwoods’ decision to return to Lakeland baseball this season.
Raiston, a senior, and Tadhg, a junior, departed North Idaho with their family to live in Kentucky in 2023. They had no intentions of returning to Lakeland for the 2024 season. Along with having to play baseball somewhere new, they would no longer have long-time friends as teammates.
This being said, as quickly as the two were gone, they returned. Raiston Ellwood turned 18 in Kentucky and decided to return to Idaho to finish high school. He was shortly followed by his younger brother during winter break, ideally in time for open gyms.
“I knew it was my brother’s senior year, and we’ve played together our whole lives, so it would be weird playing his last year apart from him,” Tadhg Ellwood said.
Being where they considered home, even though their family was still in Kentucky, was the best-case scenario in each’s eyes as they knew no different than playing together. Looking back on the journey they have gone on together, they know the right decision was made and that neither would change a thing.
The Ellwoods also express gratitude towards first-year head coach Bevacqua, who has been a phenomenal addition to the baseball program. He came in with the ability to enforce rules and hold everyone accountable.
“The season is going decent. The new coach has brought many changes, and some kids did not adapt to the changes, but overall we are bonding and coming together,” Raiston Ellwood said.
Each admitted that there are things to work on, both as a team and individually, as there are simply teams that have had phenomenal athletes and have been bigger than the Hawks.
Tadhg Ellwood and Raiston Ellwood contribute heavily to Lakeland baseball in various ways. Their ability to do this comes from years of experience, but they also give credit to their athleticism.
“I have to give a part of it to natural talent because I can’t do it all off hard work,” Tadhg Ellwood said. “The coaches growing up obviously benefited me and having an older brother, we built off of each other.”
The impact the Ellwoods have on the game makes them feel as though they are responsible for wins and losses, as they can control a game’s outcome. Subsequently, knowing that teammates and coaches have so much trust in them fills the Ellwoods with confidence.
Despite being on the same team, the Ellwoods find a severe and intense sibling rivalry in baseball that they do not find anywhere else.
“We’re more supportive as brothers and more competitive as teammates because of wanting to outdo the other,” Raiston Ellwood said. “His big thing is that he’s a little better at pitching.”
Although Raiston Ellwood can agree with his brother on this, he has another faultless sibling-like rebuttal involving the idea that his arm has taken a beating from pitching itself.
“I guess he also gives me stuff for the way that I dress, and he always brags about his straight A’s, but that’s about it,” Raiston Ellwood said.
The baseball season is about halfway through and the Ellwoods will continue to do whatever they can to propel this team to a district championship.
Following high school, Raiston Ellwood plans on going to trade school, and although Tadhg has a long time to decide, joining the military is a possibility for his future.
