BHS seeded 5th as state playoffs begin

By Steven Powell • May 16, 2022 1:30 am

Bainbridge is seeded fifth in state as regional 3A baseball play begins Saturday.

The Spartans will face 12th seeded Mercer Island at 10 a.m. in Auburn.

The winner will advance to the regional championship game against either third seed Auburn, 20th seed Mountlake Terrace or 13th seed Bishop Blanchet.

The winner of that game will advance to state in Pasco the following weekend.

At last week’s District 3/4 tournament in Auburn, the host team used the long ball to beat Bainbridge 6-2 Saturday in the District 3/4 3A semifinals.

However, eighth-seeded BHS came back later to demolish sixth seed Silas 12-1 to place third in the tourney. Auburn stunned top seed Peninsula 3-1 to take the title.

Against the Trojans, Spartan Connor Sweeney led off the game with a single up the middle, but a double play ended any chance of a score.

The Trojans took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning off Spartan lefty Zach Duffy after two singles and a walk loaded the bases and a groundout brought in a run. BHS third baseman Luke Lavigne made two nice plays to get out of the inning, stranding two runners.

Bainbridge came back in the top of the second to knot the score at 1-1. Duffy singled to left, and, after a fly out and line out, a single to right and a walk loaded the bases for Coco Black’s RBI single. But a fly out stranded three runners.

A leadoff homer for Auburn in its half of the second made it 2-1, and then the home team tacked on two more runs on three hits in the bottom of the third to make it 4-1.

With two out in the top of the fourth, Black almost tied it up on one swing, but his long fly ball was caught in leftfield at the warning track. Owen Browning had an infield single and Cooper Russell a check swing single to center to set that up.

Russell took over on the mound for BHS in the fourth and gave up a solo home run in the fifth to make it 5-1. Each team scored another run for the final 6-2 score.