EVERETT — The Edmonds-Woodway High School baseball team found itself in a two-run hole before it even came to bat. But the Wesco South champions used a five-run second-inning rally to propel themselves into the Class 3A District 1 championship game.
The Warriors clinched a berth in the state tournament by beating Monroe 8-4 Tuesday night at Funko Field. The victory put Edmonds-Woodway in the district championship game for the third straight year. The Warriors play Mountlake Terrace for the district title at 4 p.m. Saturday at Funko Field.
Edmonds-Woodway (18-4) led 5-2 entering the top of the third, and after Monroe (17-5) tallied another run in that inning, senior Diego Escandon figured it was time to test the Bearcats’ outfield. He saw the pitch he wanted in the bottom of the fourth and sent it deep into center field, driving home sophomore Andreas Simonsen. A Monroe error on defense helped Escandon come all the way home, stretching the lead 7-3.
Warriors sophomore Lukas Wanke singled a line drive to center field in the bottom of the sixth, stole second, advanced to third on a grounder by Simonsen, then came home from a Bearcats pitching error to make it 8-3.
Monroe senior Ethan Hogan had a smack to right field in the top of the seventh, which drove home senior Ryan Miller, but Edmonds-Woodway freshman relief pitcher Declan Crawford was able to halt anymore scores.
“These guys practice hard, play hard all the time, and they never give up. So down 2-0, it’s just another challenge they want to fight through, and the guys did it,” Warriors coach Dan Somoza said. “Diego, he hit that ball so high, I didn’t think it was ever going to land. … Anytime we can add on runs, it makes us feel a little more comfortable in the dugout and gives us a little cushion down the end.”
Warriors freshman Grafton Marshall-Inman pitched six innings with four strikeouts.
“I knew my team had my back. I just got to go deal, can’t let up anymore runs, and just pitched to contact and had a great defense behind me,” Marshall-Inman said. “I didn’t have my best stuff but still worked with my fastball. (Monroe) made contact, it went straight to my defense. … (We) got outs, … and didn’t let up.”
Edmonds-Woodway lost to Lynnwood 1-0 in the 2022 district championship, but topped Mountlake Terrace 2-1 in 2023. Earlier this season, the Warriors and Hawks split games, penciling in what will be an intense finale.
Monroe faces Mount Vernon in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at 10 a.m. Saturday at Funko Field.
Mountlake Terrace 3, Arlington 2
Every Mountlake Terrace player swarmed senior Matthew Meadows when he arrived to first base after drilling a ground ball down the left-field line, which brought home senior Talan Zenk with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving the Hawks a walk-off victory in the other Class 3A District 1 semifinal Tuesday at Funko Field. Zenk hit a single to right, then stole second and third to set up the final sequence.
“The strategy was just get runs any way we can. That’s what we’ve been like at least every single game this year,” Hawks coach Ryan Sells said. “We’re not putting up the big numbers. … We didn’t change anything. We wanted to stick to the same game plan: move (Arlington) over, get some guys on (and) steal some bases.”
Junior Jeremy Perreault and senior Dayton Nickolson pitched a combined seven innings, striking out six batters for Mountlake Terrace (17-4), which clinched a state berth and advanced to Saturday’s championship game against Edmonds-Woodway, despite playing from behind the entire contest.
Sophomore Aiden Jones had a pair of RBI hits for Arlington (12-11), which faces Stanwood in a winner-to-state, loser-out game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Funko Field.
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