There have been plenty of instances in which a championship is won on the backs of a handful of star players. It’s a somewhat tiresome rhetoric: a team rolls to a title behind two or three guys the opposition can’t stop.

Props to the Kangs for going the basic route.

The Lake Washington High baseball team didn’t blow out any opponent in the Class 3A state tournament on its way to a state title; the Kangs were business-like and efficient.

For the most part, Lake Washington did it with pitching and defense: Paul Falco threw strikes, Nick Ludwig kept batters guessing and the guys in the field kept things clean.

Before the state title game in Pasco, a handful of the players joked that an article on the Kangs’ defensive hot streak acted as a jinx, but the streak is still worth mentioning.

Lake Washington committed an error in the first inning after the article went to press, but rallied to beat Southridge 5-4 in nine innings. The Kangs had only four errors in six postseason games, allowing six runs in the KingCo and WIAA playoffs combined.

All six games were played on natural grass and dirt, which can be a nuisance for a team that plays most of its games with an artificial infield. The natural surface can make grounders difficult for players who are used to a predictable bounce.

The Kangs put out players 51 times in the postseason with only two mistakes on grounders: one sac bunt hit at Ludwig, and the other a hard grounder hit at first baseman Kevin Nakahara.

That’s not to say that Falco and Ludwig didn’t have standout performances. Falco was especially impressive, capping an undefeated season as a starter by getting a shutout in the state championship game, but the stats speak for themselves.

The Kangs didn’t buckle, even in high-pressure, small-ball situations where teams keep the bats low and on the ground and hope for a mistake.

And there wasn’t much room for error. The largest win came in the opener, a 9-2 victory over Enumclaw, but the others were all within five runs: shutouts of Kennewick and Lakeside, and an extra-innings win over Southridge.

One parent told me the team didn’t celebrate much after beating Kennewick in the quarterfinals, but the revelation wasn’t surprising. Lake Washington has been this way all year.

Coach Derek Bingham has said he knew the Kangs were title contenders before the season ever began. Lake Washington and Mercer Island, both KingCo teams, were the two best squads in 3A as far as he was concerned, and it seems the team knew it after beating the Islanders in the KingCo playoffs.

So when Lake Washington polished off a routine 5-0 win over Kennewick, of course there was no wild celebration.

The Kangs had a job to do, and do it they did.

John William Howard is a staff writer with the Kirkland Reporter and covered the LWHS baseball team this season.