Baseball: Islanders drop semifinal, must win two Saturday

Mercer Island will draw on Ernie Banks for inspiration Saturday. The ‘Let’s Play Two’ mantra applies to the Islanders after Thursday night’s 5-0 loss to Mount Si in the KingCo 3A semifinals at Bannerwood Park.

Mercer Island must beat Sammamish at 1 p.m. here Saturday and then beat the loser of Friday’s Mount Si-Lake Washington championship game at 4 p.m. in order to advance to a winner-to-state game Tuesday.

“It gives us an opportunity to prove that we can win a double-header, which is what it takes to get to that final round at state,” said head coach Cory Smith, whose team is the defending KingCo tournament champions.

After a sacrifice fly in the second put Mount Si ahead 1-0, fourth-seeded Mercer Island (12-9) couldn’t overcome some sloppy play in the third.

Dustin Breshears’ triple to the centerfield wall set up Tim Proudfoot’s RBI single. Trevor Lane’s 2-run double over the leftfielder’s head made it 4-0.

“We had a couple balls that we misplaced in the outfield and that cost us early,” Smith said.

Mount Si’s final run came on Max Brown’s RBI double into the right-centerfield gap.

Lane led top-seeded Mount Si (17-3), fifth in this week’s rankings at washingtonbaseballpoll.com.

Lane (four walks, eight strikeouts) allowed just four hits – all singles – and stopped Mercer Island’s biggest threat in the fifth when he helped turn one of the Wildcats’ three double plays.

“He was aggressive, he was in the zone early and put us on our heels several times,” Smith said.

George Jiranek (five hits, two walks, three strikeouts) lasted just three innings as Smith had Saturday in sight.

“I need arms available,” Smith said. “If George would have pitched just one pitch in the fourth, he wouldn’t have been able to throw.”

Hunter Goldberg (four hits, one walk) was solid in relief.

The game stalled briefly before the bottom half of the sixth.

“We had an issue where there was a question over the legality of the bat because it’s one that at least is a similar model to a bat that we’ve had pulled before,” Smith explained. “We asked, and the base umpire said that it was legal this evening. I never did confirm if it had the proper rating.”

Assistant coach Jordan Seiber was ejected during this time. Smith said that according to WIAA rules, assistant coaches are not allowed to speak with umpires.