Eagles lose semifinal

WENATCHEE – Given the choice between being lucky and good, Lakeside (Nine Mile Falls) baseball coach Matt Sullivan would have probably preferred the latter.

His Eagles had just scored a goose egg in the “breaks” column Friday en route to a 9-1 State 1A semifinal loss to Naches Valley at Paul Thomas Stadium.

“None,” Sullivan said after Lakeside (23-2) had dropped into today’s 10 a.m. game against Nooksack Valley for third and fourth places. “We just didn’t get any breaks at all. Our kids hit some balls hard that their kids caught and their kids hit some balls that weren’t hit that hard that fell.

“But that’s baseball.”

There was even a key play, Sullivan said, that both exemplified Lakeside’s plight and sealed its fate. Having scored a run in the top of the sixth inning to make the score 3-1, the Eagles had runners at first and third with two out and No. 3 hitter Kyle Stillar at bat.

Stillar smoked a drive that had Sullivan waving his runners around from the third-base coaching box, only to have Naches Valley shortstop Justin Burton spear the ball just off the dirt.

“That was the play of the game right there,” Sullivan said. “That ball goes through and who knows where we go from there. But again, that’s baseball.”

While Lakeside labored for most of the game against Rangers senior left-hander Zack Swart, its own southpaw, Anthony Froemke, and the Eagles fell into an early deficit.

Froemke hit the first batter he faced and walked the second as Naches Valley scored three times in the first inning. No Eagles got more than one hit off Swart.