Lake Washington baseball got off to a fast start in its KingCo opener against Mercer Island on Friday. Scoring four runs in the first inning and extending its lead to 7-0 in the third, the Kangs went on to a 7-4 victory over the Islanders at Lee Johnson Field in Kirkland.
“You know we’ve been stressing it a lot,” said Kangs coach Derek Bingham of his team’s offensive effort. “We’ve been feeling good about our pitching staff and our defense, offensively we’ve been a little bit hit-or-miss. We had a couple really good days of practice offensively, and tonight we came out and it showed.”
Starting pitcher and lead-off hitter Connor Johnson set the tone for the Kangs early, pitching a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first and then leading off the bottom of the inning with a double. Johnson finished 2-for-3 at the plate, scoring two runs while pitching five innings, striking out seven and allowing no runs.
“He’s really a catalyst for us and did a great job of starting us on the right foot,” said Bingham. “He did exactly what we wanted him to do, pounded the strike zone with more than one pitch, threw a lot of strikes. We have a lot of confidence in Connor.”
Court Osborn also went 2-for-3 for the Kangs, hitting a double and batting in two runs, and Karsen Rogers went 2-for-4 with a triple for Lake Washington.
Mercer Island made a late run, scoring two runs during the sixth inning and another two during the seventh, but ultimately couldn’t overcome its early deficit. The Islanders dropped to 2-3 on the season, while the Kangs improved to 3-2 overall.
Next for Lake Washington, the Kangs will take on Bellevue at 4:30 p.m. Monday, April 7 at Bellevue High School.
