It’s do-or-die time for the Friday Harbor baseball team.
The Wolverines just missed clinching a berth at the state 1A tournament May 8. Meridian’s John Murphy stroked a pinch-hit double in the eighth inning to lift the Trojans to a 4-3 extra-inning victory in the District 1 championship game in Blaine.
As District 1 runner-up, Friday Harbor (17-4 overall, 14-1 league) will face Cascade Christian in the opening round of the Tri-District tournament May 15 at Sehome. The winner will earn a trip to State, while the season will come to a close for the loser.
Hitless in five trips at the plate, Head Coach Rich Warin said the Wolverines showed a lot of moxie in battling back into the contest.
“Their guy had a no-hitter going into the fifth,” Warin said. “Our guys could’ve just folded at that point, but they didn’t. This is a pretty great group of guys, especially when you consider where we were at the start of the season.”
The Wolverines opened the season on the Trojans’ home field in mid-March and were shutout 7-0 that day. They weathered a series of ups and downs earlier on, righted the ship, and had a 13-game win streak in tow going into Saturday’s championship game, including a
6-4 victory over Nooksack Valley in opening round of the 1A regional playoffs.
Trailing 3-0 in the sixth, Friday Harbor finally caught up to Trojans starting pitcher Mitchell Tripp, who held the Wolverines without a base hit over the first five innings. Freshman Brandon Lambright belted a leadoff double to ignite the offense and Shawn Cutting upped the ante by following with a hard-hit single.
With two runners on, senior Justin “J.J.” James and Alex Jangard each connected with an RBI single and Sasha Moghadam knotted the score at 3-3 with a sacrifice fly.
Murphy shattered the tie with the game-winner in the eighth and, with the victory, gave Meridian its first appearance at State in four years.
Friday Harbor 6
Nooksack Valley 4
Junior Roy Taylor belted a two-run homer and Alex Jangard stroked a solo shot as the Wolverines opened the District 1 playoffs with a 6-4 victory over Nooksack Valley May 8 at Pipeline Fields in Blaine.
Friday Harbor led 5-2 at the end of the fourth inning, added an insurance run in the fifth, and held on to advance into the championship game against Meridian, which opened the playoffs with a 7-1 win over Coupeville. (Coupeville snagged the final berth at Tri-District with a 10-9 win over Nooksack Valley).
