Lake Washington baseball advances to final four

The Lake Washington High baseball team is on quite the defensive postseason roll.

By John William Howard • May 23, 2016 12:35 am

The Lake Washington High baseball team is on quite the defensive postseason roll.

The Kangaroos defeated Kennewick 5-0 in the semifinals of the Class 3A state tournament on Sunday at Curtis High School in University Place, qualifying for the state semifinals in Pasco for the sixth time in school history.

Lake Washington (22-2) beat Enumclaw 9-2 earlier on Sunday in the first round, and has now gone 26 consecutive innings without committing an error.

Kennewick (20-3) won the 3A Mid-Columbia Conference title, and Beat Bonney Lake 4-3 in the first round of the state tournament. But against the Kangaroos, nothing skipped through for Kennewick.

“It was a really impressive showing today by our defense, and that’s been the there for us all year long,” Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham said. “If we pitch well and play good defense, we’ll be in the game regardless of how we’re swinging it.”

The games were postponed a day due to rain on Saturday, but the weather certainly didn’t dampen the Kangs’ bats. Lake Washington jumped out to a 7-0 lead against Enumclaw, and took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Kennewick.

In the semifinal game, starter Nick Ludwig gave up only two hits, but struck out just two batters. Kennewick put 21 balls into play, a majority of them on the ground.

“It was a really good performance by [Ludwig],” Bingham said. “It was pretty dominant. He didn’t have the strikeout numbers he normally would have, but when [Kennewick] made contact, they weren’t hard ground balls.”

On the flip side, Lake Washington was clutch in tight situations against Kennewick.

In the bottom of the first, Kevin Nakahara hit an RBI double with two outs to give Lake Washington a 1-0 lead. Paul Falco hit an RBI single on the next at-bat, and Kyle DePartee drew a bases-loaded walk to cap a three-run rally.

Both runs in the fifth inning were scored with two outs on the board as well.

“The clutch hit is kind of what you need to make a run,” Bingham said. “Our guys have the ability to hit in two-out situations, not just a sac fly or a grounder to get a guy home.”

Nakahara led Lake Washington against Kennewick at the plate, going 2-3 with two RBIs.

The Kangs spread hits around against Enumclaw(12-12) on Sunday morning. Jake Wikel went 2-4 with two RBIs, while Matt Scheffler had a double with two RBIs.

Paul Falco pitched six innings against Enumclaw, throwing 102 pitches with five strikeouts, nine hits and a home run allowed. Marcus Noteboom came on to close.

Next, Lake Washington is scheduled to play Southridge at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 27 at Gesa Stadium in Pasco. Southridge finished second in the Mid-Columbia Conference behind Kennewick, and beat Mercer Island and Lynwood to reach the semifinals.

Bingham said he wasn’t sure who would start against Southridge, but it was likely between Falco and Ludwig.

“Paul and Nick give two different looks,” Bingham said. “Falco challenges batters in the strike zone and Ludwig is more crafty and has a better command with the off-speed stuff. We consider them 1 and 1A, and [Connor] Johnson in the bullpen is 1B.”

The state title game, should Lake Washington qualify, is scheduled to 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 27.