The Mercer Island High baseball team opened the 3A KingCo tournament with authority on Saturday, hammering Juanita 10-0 in five innings at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.
The Rebels (7-14) had their opportunities in Saturday’s contest, though were unable to capitalize against Mercer Island starting pitcher Peter Lopes. Juanita loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the first inning and again in the top of the fourth inning, but Lopes drew critical groundouts in both innings and the Islanders (18-3) made a double play to strand three runners in the fourth frame.
Juanita coach Mark Peterson said such struggles were a little too familiar for his team this season.
“Sometimes we just get in our own way and don’t make the routine plays or make the right throws [to] the right spot,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a lack of effort, I think the guys play hard and play hard for each other, and that’s all I can ask them to do. You’re going to make errors. A team like [Mercer Island], you’ve got to play perfect. You got to play hard and hang with them, get late in the game and give yourself a chance to win. We just didn’t do that today.”
Harrison Goonewardene, Anthony Scalzo and Parker Simpson each drove in two runs as the Islanders pounced quickly with six runs in the first two innings and never let up in their first matchup of the postseason.
“We came out early and got on them right away,” Mercer Island coach Dominic Woody said. “At any level, the starting pitchers are going to be most susceptible in the first inning or two. For us to go out there and put a couple crooked numbers up against a top pitcher in our league like that, it really set the tone for the day.”
Lopes finished allowing four hits and four walks while striking out two. At the plate, Petrie finished 4-for-4 with an RBI and Hsue went 2-for-3, also driving in a run.
“You just know that hitters are out there and they’re trying to do everything they can to square you up,” Lopes said. “At the same time, our defense is so good where I can just do the same thing that I always do, try to throw strikes and let them make plays since I know they’re all capable of fielding every single ball. I try to break it down pretty easily.”
Mercer Island is scheduled to take on Lake Washington in the KingCo 3A title game at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, at Bannerwood Park. The winner will earn a berth to the 3A state tournament.
