6 PM: After two district-tournament wins in Bellevue today – 4-1 over Stanwood and 6-5 over Walla Walla – the West Seattle HS baseball team is headed to state! Full story and photos when we get back to HQ.
ADDED 10:03 PM: The celebration followed a tense final inning in the Wildcats’ game against Walla Walla.
Senior Felix Schlede started on the mound for WSHS, and the game was scoreless until the 4th inning.
Then Walla Walla went on a 4-0 run. But West Seattle refused to let the runs go unanswered, and broke its own scoring drought in the bottom of the 4th, starting with 2 RBIs by #5. senior Nick Hazlegrove. The score was tied at 4-4 before the inning was out.
The Wildcats added two more runs in the fifth, but then the Blue Devils tried a comeback, scoring 1 run in the top of the sixth, bringing the score to 6-5, too close for comfort, and then loading the bases in the top of the seventh, but Wildcats reliever Maddox Brent got out of the jam, and WSHS got the trip to state.
Hazlegrove was chosen Player of the Game.
The Wildcats, 24-1 in Dylan Mclauchlin‘s first season as head coach, are now in the state’s final four, and they’ll play Mercer Island at 7 pm Friday (May 27th) at Gesa Stadium in Pasco. The last WSHS appearance in regional/state competition was 2014.
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