It’s time to try for the title.

Three teams from Bainbridge High School — the fastpitch team, the boys soccer team and the girls lacrosse team — have advanced to the playoffs are seeking a shot at a state crown.

For the Spartans now, though, the focus is on the next opponent, and not the game where the winner will take the trophy.

Fastpitch plays perfect

The BHS fastpitch team finished the season undefeated with a conference record of 15-0, thus earning them a number-one seed.

And after Ingraham defeated Eastside Catholic, they earned a spot to take on the Spartans, at Bainbridge.

Back in late March, the Spartans crushed Ingraham in five innings, 20-0.

“There is nothing comfortable about anything,” said Spartan head coach Liz McCloskey.

“We have to focus on one game at a time, (Wednesday) our focus was Ingraham, once that was over our focus turned to what we later learned was Blanchet.”

Bainbridge basically put the game away when they went through the batting order in the bottom of the first, giving starting pitcher Katie Raben a very comfortable 9-0 lead after just one inning.

In the second and third innings the Spartans showed they had some power in their bats as well. Raben and Erin Kinney each blasted their third home runs of the year, and Erin Kinney’s younger sister, freshman Kate Kinney, hit her first career high school home run.

“That is definitely a boost when we hit home runs,” said McCloskey.

“If you look back at our stats we didn’t hit a lot of home runs, but to hit three in one game, especially when one comes from a freshman, that is an advantage,” she said.

The Spartans finished off Ingraham 14-0 in just five innings. Raben, who went 3-for-3 at the plate, also pitched a great game.

Of the 15 outs recorded by the Spartans defense, Raben struck out 10 of them, and she gave up just two hits.

Bishop Blanchet surprised the number-one seed in the Metro Sound league (BHS plays in the Metro Mountain league) Nathan Hale and beat them 4-2, and took on the Spartans on Thursday, after the Review went to press.

The Rangers beat Bishop Blanchet 7-1 and 8-1 earlier this season, and if the heavily favored Spartans can defeat Bishop Blanchet for a third time this season, BHS will face either Holy Names or Chief Sealth for the Metro League Championships on Friday at Lower Woodland.

Lucky number 22

The Bainbridge girls lacrosse team seems to have a lucky number as of late — and that number is 22.

In the final four games of the regular season the Spartans have scored exactly 22 goals in each of the games, and outscored their opponents 88-15.

The Spartans played their first playoff game of the season on Monday against Eastlake Catholic at Bainbridge.

Eastlake Catholic kept the game close in the first half, but the number-one overall Spartans took over in the second.

At the end of the first half, BHS had a mere 10-6 lead, but in the second half both the offense and defense stepped it up. Led by the two team leaders in goals throughout the season — Kelsey Mackin and Olivia Smith, who combined for 11 goals in the game — the Spartans scored 22 once again.

Meanwhile, the defense shut down Eastlake Catholic and allowed just two goals in the second half.

The Spartans came away with a 22-8 victory in their first playoff game in the quest for a championship repeat.

The Spartans took on Overlake on Thursday, again at home.

If the Spartans defeat Overlake, they will host either Issaquah or Mercer Island on Tuesday.

Scales hits crucial goal

Bainbridge finished the regular boys soccer season undefeated with a record of 6-0-4, but ended the season with a 0-0 tie.

It was a game that Spartan head coach George Vukic said was, well, a weird one.

Luckily, the Spartans quickly ended the scoreless spell early in the first game of the Metro League tournament on Monday.

The Spartans took on Seattle Prep in the first round of the Metro League Championships, and it was Connor Winship, who scored on a Sebastian Scales pass in just the 13th minute of the game.

The Spartans would not slow down after that.

Just three minutes later, Michael Crowley scored and the Spartans had an early 2-0 lead.

The scored remained 2-0 until the 61st minute when Winship scored his second goal of the game with an unassisted goal.

In the 70th minute Crowley helped put the game well out of reach for Seattle Prep when he delivered a pass to Devereaux Kesler to put the Spartans in front 4-0, and the score remained that way until the final whistle was blown.

After the win against Seattle Prep, the Spartans faced the terminally tough Chief Sealth team.

Chief Sealth finished with a conference record of 12-0, but just two weeks ago in a non-conference game, the Spartans put up six goals against Chief Sealth and won the game 6-2.

The Spartans’ six goals against Chief Sealth was four more than any team had scored against them this season, but the game which counted on Wednesday was a much different story.

The defense was solid on both ends and the game was scoreless until the 79th minute.

Then, it was the Spartans’ junior star Sebastian Scales who scored an unassisted goal to give BHS a 1-0 lead.

The Spartans tough defense continued to leave Chief Sealth scoreless and the Spartans won the game 1-0 and will move on the Metro League Championship on Friday, at Interbay Stadium against Lakeside.

The Spartans have played Lakeside twice this season and both times have won by a score of 4-1.