With a single swing of the bat, sophomore Gabe Lawson snapped a 2-2 tie to put the home team back out in front, with a two-run blast that easily cleared the right field fence, and the Wolverines were on a roll.

Friday Harbor (16-3) scored six unanswered runs in the final three innings to advance into the winners bracket of Northwest District 1A playoffs with a 8-2 victory at home, May 1, over Blaine at Hartman Field.

Lawson, who went 3-for-4 at the plate, with two singles and that pivotal two-run homer in the fifth, was looking for a bit of redemption after he got caught looking at a third strike in his first trip to the plate.

“I was thinking first pitch all the way,” he said of at-bat No. 3. “I didn’t even swing the bat in my first at bat and got a backwards K.”

Senior Austin Lambright persevered on the mound to keep the Borderites bottled up in spite of a shaky performance in the field by the Wolverines early on. Friday Harbor committed four errors, one of which Blaine to advantage of to score two runs in the fourth, in the field in the 7-inning contest.

Lambright gave up only two base hits, two base-on-balls and struck out seven over six innings. Junior Otis Cooper-West, with the assist of a double play on a line drive in the infield, closed out the game in relief.

With the win, the Wolverines will face Mount Baker, today, May 2, in second round of the District 1A playoffs, at 4 p.m., at Pipeline Fields, in Blaine. Friday Harbor emerged with an 8-6 win in the last meeting between the two regional Division 1A rivals, on a rain-soaked field, April 27, at Mount Baker.

The winner will advance to face either Meridian or Lynden Christian, in the championship game, Saturday, May 4, at Pipeline Fields, at 4 p.m.

— Scott Rasmussen