LACEY – With a late, noon-time start for their first game in the 2017 3A State Softball Championships, the Spartans had a chance to sleep in.

Unfortunately, the wake-up call didn’t come soon enough for Bainbridge.

The Spartans fell to Bonney Lake 4-2 in the first round of the tournament, then rebounded with a 14-1 drubbing of Garfield in the first round of consolation play.

The Spartans’ offensive flurry got a visit from the Sandman, however, and Bainbridge was outscored 15-1 in a five-inning finale for BHS at state.

Spartan Varsity Coach Haylee Baker said Bainbridge just didn’t get up in time for an opening-round win.

“The first game — we were asleep until the seventh inning,” Baker said.

“We played a good team,” she said of the Panthers. “But honestly, we got seven innings in and then finally decided to start hitting the ball.

“And it was too little too late,” she said.

The last inning brought the Spartan faithful to their feet, after Sara Colley hit a two-run homer to plate Morgan Lassoff and cut the Bonney Lake advantage in half, 4-2.

That was the end of the Spartan rally, though, as the Panthers held on to win.

“I told them, it’s too late,” Baker said. “You can’t sit back and let that happen. You have to start that at the very first pitch, every single game.

“We did that going into the second game. I thought we were really energized. We had a lot of fire. We kind of used that last inning of the first game to fuel us through the second game.”

Indeed.

The loss put Bainbridge in consolation play against Garfield (19-7), a familiar Metro League foe. The Spartans got on the board with one run in the first inning, followed by another three in the second and seven more runs in the third for a 11-1 lead over the Bulldogs.

Maddie Loverich led the big Bainbridge bat attack, going 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a run.

Kensey Baker added an RBI and had three runs, while teammate Tiana Rabang was 1-for-2 with an RBI and three runs.

The Spartans finished off the Bulldogs in five innings, a fate that would be forced upon Bainbridge in their third game of the day last Friday against Snohomish (24-4 this year).

Facing another squad of Panthers, Bainbridge struggled from the start as Snohomish jumped to a 7-1 first-innning lead and never looked back.

“It’s frustrating seeing them drop a game like that when I know they are such a good team,” Baker added. “But it happens. It’s the game of softball; there are games that are crappy and games that you drop. It’s just unfortunate that we did that in the state tournament.”

That first inning — with three Spartan errors — was a game best left forgotten.

“It was bad. I feel like that was partially on me as the coach,” Baker said, adding that she should have pulled Spartan pitcher Malia Peato out of the circle for another hurler.

“But I have so much faith in her as a pitcher that it was a hard decision to pull her out so early when she’s been so solid for us all year.”

That said, Baker noted that Snohomish — last year’s 4A champions — only tallied five earned runs in the matchup.

“We totally blew it. It’s unfortunate. It’s disappointing,” Baker said.

“I mean, I don’t mind losing to a team any day, but when we hand it to them and you roll over like that, it’s disappointing.”

“We’re a better ballclub than that. It just wasn’t our game. When our pitchers are throwing ground-ball outs and we’re making bad throws and letting them get extra bases and extra runs — I am at a loss for words at some point. It was like, ‘Huh?’”

Third-game fatigue on an atypically hot day may have been a big factor.

“I don’t think we had the stamina, honestly. It didn’t show,” the Spartan coach said. “We just looked wiped out. There was mental mistakes, physical mistakes. That was not Spartan softball.”

The team will use it as a learning experience, Baker added.

“It’s unfortunate, but I think we’re going to use that going into the summer. We need to be hitting it hard. Every single person needs to be at every single workout and working hard in the off-season.

“Because you win championships in the off-season. And we didn’t have that this year,” she said.

Despite the discouraging end at the state tourney, the Spartans can look back on a sensational season that saw them end with a 20-7 record, a second-place finish in the highly competitive Metro League, and a third place in the district tournament.

It was also the 11th straight trip to state for the Spartans, who finished in a tie for ninth place.

“I was very proud of the way they played this season,” the Spartan coach said. “This team has an incredible amount of heart. They are an amazing group.”

“We still have a pretty young team, so we’ll come back gunning next year,” Baker said.

Review writer Brian Kelly can be reached at bkelly@bainbridgereview.com.