WIAA Class 3A baseball roundup: Lincoln of Seattle, Lake Washington set to face off in championship game

EVERETT, Wash. – In what might be the most surprising move of the semifinal round, West Seattle opted to not pitch its star lefty Miles Gosztola against Lincoln of Seattle.

The Lynx pounced at the opportunity, scoring all five of their runs in the first three innings off West Seattle junior Matthew Henning.

West Seattle got within one run thanks to some fielding and throwing errors by Lincoln, but Lynx ace Bjorn Johnson prevented any further damage with the score at 5-4.

"We really only had one bad inning with some bad errors and that's uncommon for us," Lincoln coach Ray Atkinson said. "We hung in there, we won and we get to go to the state championship."

Gosztola saw the mound in the fifth and sixth innings, but West Seattle's offense was unable to push the tying run across.

With Johnson at 101 pitches, nearing his limit of 105, after six innings, he went back out there for the top of the seventh just looking to get the leadoff batter out.

He struck out West Seattle's first hitter on three pitches, leaving him with 104 and the chance to get one last hitter out.

"That was probably the biggest at-bat of the game for me," Johnson said. "I executed. That's all I needed to do."

Johnson also got the second out and Giles Winter came on in relief to record the final out of the game.

"That was a tough game. The kids have been preparing hard," Atkinson said. "To go to the state championship game? That's just amazing. I'm really happy for the community."

Lake Washington shuts out O'Dea to reach state title game

Before O'Dea even had its first turn at the plate, Lake Washington had pushed three runs across for an early lead.

The Kangaroos would have been fine with just that, but they tacked on three more for a 6-0, shutout win over the Fighting Irish to advance to the state championship game.

Lake Washington senior Carsen Mann pitched a complete game for the Kangaroos.

"He's been great. He was the league MVP in our league and when you give him the ball you know you're going to get his best and we absolutely got that today," Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham said.

After a 4-4 record through its first eight games, Lake Washington has won 16 of its last 17 games.

"We were kind of in the dumps and we found a way to work through that adversity," Bingham said. "We're as confident as anybody and we're excited."