LAKE STEVENS — For 12 Snohomish seniors who endured a last-place finish a year ago, Tuesday’s 6-2 victory over Lake Stevens was meaningful because it pulled the Panthers into a tie with the rival Vikings atop the Western Conference North baseball standings.
And for Snohomish freshman shortst
op Haaken Lande, who missed the discouragement of 2010, Tuesday’s win was meaningful because he had the game’s two most important hits.
Lande stroked a two-out RBI double in the second inning, which trimmed an early Lake Stevens 2-0 lead to one run. The next inning, and with the bases loaded, Lande rapped a two-out, two-run single to give the Panthers the lead, and then stayed in a rundown between first and second long enough for the third runner to score.
Haaken, who was a part-time player early in the season, finished the game 2-for-3 with three RBI.
“That’s quite an accomplishment,” Snohomish coach Kim Hammons said. Early in the season “we were letting him build his confidence and get comfortable playing varsity baseball, and now he’s a major contributor in a huge game.”
Those four runs were all the Panthers needed, though they tacked on solo runs in the fourth and seventh innings, the latter coming on a home run to right field by catcher Jake Taubenheim.
The win, coming in the first of a three-game series between the teams this week, means Snohomish and Lake Stevens have matching 11-2 league records. The Wesco race will be decided in games today at Snohomish and Thursday at Cavelero Mid High School in Lake Stevens, which the Vikings are using because their own field is soggy from recent rains.
As much as both teams would like a conference crown, both are also looking ahead to the district playoffs, which begin Saturday. Snohomish can clinch the division’s No. 1 seed by winning one of the two remaining games, which would give the Panthers the tie-breaker based on a 2-1 season series margin.
Lake Stevens must win today and Thursday to secure the No. 1 seed.
On Tuesday, Lake Stevens nabbed the early lead on a two-RBI double by left fielder Matt Sweeney. But a trio of Snohomish pitchers kept the Vikings in check the rest of the way, even though Lake Stevens hit safely in every inning but the sixth.
The Vikings had the makings of a promising rally in the seventh, putting two runners on base with no outs and loading the bases with two outs. But Panthers reliever Russell Crippen preserved the win with a final-out strikeout.
Even though the last inning “made it very interesting,” Hammons said with a wry smile, it was otherwise a good day for Snohomish.
“We played great,” he said. “We took care of some opportunities and kept the game close when they jumped out on us, and then we had a nice inning and jumped ahead. Then we got a couple more runs and stopped their rally.
“Our guys really came to play and did a good job,” he added.
The Vikings, meanwhile, were disappointed by several missed scoring chances, among other things. And among those other things were six walks given up in the first three innings, with three of those runners scoring.
“We walked too many guys,” said Lake Stevens coach Rodger Anderson in obvious understatement.
Still, Anderson expects a better effort today, in large part because the Vikings have plenty at stake in these last two games, too.
“We’ve battled through a lot this year,” he said. “And I think we’ll respond (today), I really do. … Confidence-wise, it’d help us a lot to go in as the No. 1 seed (to the district tournament) this year. And that’s still our goal.”
At Cavelero Mid-High
Snohomish 013 100 1–6 7 0
Lake Stevens 200 000 0–2 8 1
Frisk, Ellis (3), Crippen (6) and Taubenheim; Blackie, Fiske (4), Lanto (7) and Merrill. WP–Ellis. LP–Blackie. 2B–Koenig (S), Lande (S), Sweeney (LS). HR–Taubenheim (S). Records–Snohomish 11-2 league, 13-5 overall. Lake Stevens 11-2, 14-4.
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