Lynnwood baseball’s strong season comes to rough end at state

Published 1:30 am Saturday, May 21, 2022

SNOQUALMIE — The Lynnwood High School baseball team’s strong season came to a rough conclusion.

The No. 7 seed Royals suffered an 11-1 six-inning loss to No. 10 seed Mt. Spokane in a Class 3A state regional round-of-16 matchup Saturday afternoon at Mount Si High School.

“You’ve gotta tip your cap to the opponent,” first-year Lynnwood coach Scott Watson said. “They’re pretty good, and we just had an off day.”

Mt. Spokane (22-5) turned a 2-0 game into a mercy-rule rout after scoring three runs in the fifth inning and six runs in the sixth. The Wildcats totaled 20 base runners — including 10 hits, five walks and two hit by pitches.

Lynnwood, meanwhile, finished with just two hits. The Royals (15-8) didn’t get a hit until they were down to their final out in the bottom of the sixth.

Mt. Spokane starter Tyler Alm pitched five scoreless innings of no-hit ball, while striking out five batters and walking two.

Carson Coffield broke the game wide-open for the Wildcats in the sixth, when he lined a three-run double into the left-field corner to stretch their lead to 8-0. Cooper Davis added four RBI for Mt. Spokane, with a two-run single in the third and a two-run double in the sixth.

“They had the momentum and we couldn’t get a stop when we needed to,” Watson said. “It just kept snowballing.”

Mt. Spokane went on to beat No. 2 seed Lake Washington 5-4 in the regional final later in the afternoon, which gave the Wildcats their first-ever state semifinal berth. Mt. Spokane will play in next week’s 3A state final four in Pasco.

For Lynnwood, the loss ended a strong second half of the season that included a 3A District 1 Tournament title and the program’s first state appearance since 2016.

“We have a good club and I’m proud of our guys,” Watson said. “We’ve done real well this year, and hopefully we’ll be back next year. That’s what we’re going for.”