Lincoln of Seattle captures first Metro League title since reopening school in 2019 with win over West Seattle

SEATTLE – The billing of West Seattle ace Miles Gosztola and Lincoln of Seattle ace Bjorn Johnson lived up to its hype.

Both teams had already punched tickets to regionals, but the Metro League title was still at stake.

The Lynx plated two runs early off Gosztola in the top of the second on an RBI single from shortstop Nick Saelens and RBI double from third baseman Kousuke Kasai-Ensley.

Those two early runs allowed Johnson to settle down on the mound en route to a 5-2 win over the Wildcats and the school's first Metro League title since the school reopened in 2019.

It was a special accomplishment for Lincoln coach Ray Atkinson, an alumnus of the school.

"I've been with these seniors since they were freshman, so, it's kind of emotional" Atkinson said. "We opened the school and we had a goal in four years to win a championship. To come back home and win a Metro championship is pretty good."

For a while, that second-inning hiccup was Gosztola's only blemish of an otherwise outstanding outing on the mound.

Gosztola finished the game with six innings pitched and nine strikeouts, but four earned runs after an RBI single off the bat of Giles Winter and RBI double from Lucas Coma in the top of the sixth.

West Seattle plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth on Caden Fahy's two-run blast that just cleared the left field wall.

Atkinson took a stroll out to the mound after that home run to talk to Johnson. The two had a brief conversation and Johnson stayed on the mound.

"He's our guy and he's going to go 105 (pitches)," Atkinson said. "He's the guy that's going to do it up until he can't do it no more. We have so much faith in him. We prepared him for this game three or four weeks ago. We were going to rock with him."

Johnson said there wasn't any doubt he'd be staying in the game.

"I just left a fastball middle-middle to a great hitter and he put a good swing on it," Johnson said. "That was just one of my few mistakes the whole game, so (Atkinson) trusts me to stay out there and get it done."

The Lynx got one run back in the top of the seventh to push their lead back to three runs at 5-2 before Johnson came back out for the bottom of the seventh and sat the Wildcats down in order to end the game.

Johnson pitched a complete game, surrendering two runs and punched out nine West Seattle hitters.

Taking down West Seattle – SBLive WA's No. 1 team in Class 3A and No. 2 in the WIAA RPI – at this point of the season was huge for Atkinson and the Lynx – and they knew it.

"We hit the ball really well against (Gosztola) and he hasn't been hit like that all year," Atkinson said. "The kids were really confident. They went into (the game) thinking (a Metro League championship) was something they could achieve. They believed they could achieve it. It was (the players) growing and maturing and getting to this point."

The league title and win over highly-ranked West Seattle could give the Lynx a boost when regional pairings are announced Sunday.