It wasn’t until Zach Johnson’s first home run of the afternoon did the Lake Washington baseball team look settled. In their first game in over a week, the Kangs were facing Sammamish in the second round of the KingCo playoffs and until that hit in the bottom of the third, they looked a little rusty.

The Kangs beat the Totems 10-1 to advance to Friday’s championship game.

Sammamish, which knocked off No. 3 Bellevue in the first round, had a 1-0 lead on the Kangs, and had just struck out leading senior Bob Cruikshank. Johnson, a junior first baseman, stepped up and nailed the ball out of Bannerwood Park.

“The first one was the biggest one just because we weren’t sure what we were getting offensively,” said Kangs head coach Derek Bingham. “We were kind of struggling, leaving some guys on base and our best guy had just gotten out and then Zach comes up just uncorked it. I think everybody took a sigh of relief and just realized that ‘hey this is just another game’. A lot of these guys are new to the playoffs, so it’s a new experience for them and it’s nice to get that kind of confidence early and then take off from there.”

Which is exactly what the team did for the next four innings – build confidence.

The team earned another hit for a 3-1 game before Johnson’s second home run of the day, in the bottom of the fourth, with two on base for a 5-1 match. By the end of the sixth, the score was 8-1 and Lake Washington wasn’t looking back.

“We played extremely well, especially after an eight day layoff you don’t know what you’re going to get. I think we were just a little off on our timing in the first couple innings, but once the game got rolling and really once Zach hit that home run they were having a blast,” said Bingham.

Johnson was 2-4 at the plate, and scored two runs and four RBI thanks to his home runs. Teammate Nick Johnson was 1-3 with a run, and an RBI. Kory Kohwles was 1-2 with a run and an RBI during the game.

During the break between the team’s last game and Thursday’s match, Bingham said they focused on preparing and trying to treat it like regular game.

“It was a long break, but we’ve had some long breaks with rain anyways so we’re kind of used to it. I told our guys this is the most impressed I’ve been with our offense because it’s been a long time since we’ve played,” said the coach.

With the win over Sammamish the Kangs advanced to Friday night’s championship game against Mount Si, which beat Mercer Island 5-0 during the second round of the playoffs. The championship winner earns the districts No. 1 seed to state, while the loser will go on to play for the final spot in the state bracket from District 2.

Bingham said he expects the team to take the confidence they had against the Totems into the match against the Wildcats.

“If we take that into tomorrow and I’ve told our guys that all year the opponent isn’t really relevant. There are a lot of good teams in the playoffs and I think we’re one of them. I think if we play our game then we’ll be fine,” he said.