YAKIMA — The Mountlake Terrace baseball team took an early four-run lead, escaped a sixth-inning jam and added late insurance runs in its 7-3 win over West Valley (Spokane) on Friday in a 2A state tournament semifinal game at Yakima County Stadium.
The Hawks will play Ellensburg, the defending 2A state champion, at 4 p.m. Saturday in the state tournament championship contest.
Tanner Boe pitched five scoreless innings for Mountlake Terrace before surrendering three runs in the sixth frame, cutting the Hawks’ lead to 4-3. Reliever Dillon Gordon recorded the final out of the inning, and the Hawks added three runs in the bottom of the sixth to push their lead back to four runs. Gordon pitched a clean seventh inning to close out the contest.
Boe struck out 10 batters in 5.2 innings.
“Tanner was excellent on the mound,” said Mountlake Terrace coach Andrew Watters. “He was stellar for the first five innings, really held them in check. We had enough of a cushion that we were able to hold them off.”
Mountlake Terrace plated one run in the first inning, one in the second and two more in the fifth for a 4-0 advantage.
Jonathan Kumai had four hits and two RBI to lead the Hawks’ offense.
“We got on base today and were able to get some big hits, some big clutch hits,” Watters said. “It was another good team effort. I’m proud of the boys. They maintained the same composure they’ve had throughout this whole run. We showed up ready to play today and gave another consistent effort. We know that Ellensburg is a good team, but we’ll be ready to go (Saturday). We’ll play them tough and see what happens.”
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