Washington high school (WIAA) baseball 4A finals: Lake Washington's morning clean-up leads to evening delight

Kangaroos handle Eastlake, 15-5, to win third state championship under longtime coach Derek Bingham

Lake Washington recovered from an early deficit to wallop Eastlake, 15-5, in five innings to capture the WIAA Class 4A baseball championship Saturday in Yakima. / Photo by Todd Milles

YAKIMA, Wash. - Asked to revisit the past couple of weeks of the WIAA Class 4A baseball playoffs as a whole - appointed a No. 13 seed, which meant two separate road trips to Yakima - longtime Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham shared a strong sentiment.

"It is my 21st season, and I've never had a team, from one to 20 (varsity players), come together like this one did," Bingham said.

And what about the craziness of the final two games Friday and Saturday?

"I don't know if we've hit like that in a long time,' Bingham said.

When in a tough spot, just hit your away out of it - and the Kangaroos did Saturday in a state championship-game drubbing of Eastlake, 15-5, in five innings at Parker-Faller Field.

It is Lake Washington's third WIAA championship under Bingham - and first in the Class 4A ranks. The program collected a pair of Class 3A titles in 2016 and 2019.

And after Saturday, Bingham is the first coach in state history to lead a school to WIAA title-game appearances in the three top classifications (4A, 3A, 2A).

Without a doubt, given the circumstances, this will be a cherished moment within this storied program for a long time.

A case could be made Lake Washington had the toughest road to a Class 4A championship when the brackets came out - having to beat co-4A CBBN champion and regional host West Valley of Yakima in its opener, then defending state champion Richland in the quarterfinals.

On Friday, the Kangaroos faced state favorite Puyallup, ranked No. 2 in the nation at 28-0. They jumped out to an 8-0 against reigning state most valuable player Mason Pike, who is headed to Oregon State University, before the game was halted with a stadium-lighting issue.

They returned Saturday morning to finish up an 8-1 victory, then had to wait around a few hours to play District 1/2 champion and KingCo rival Eastlake for the crown.

"It was absolutely tough," Lake Washington catcher Boden Reeve said. "We got home late (Saturday) and went straight to sleep. We had an early game, But it had its benefits. We got to play a (completed) game before our game.

"We handled it as well as we could."

Before the Kangaroos could settled in, they gave up five unearned runs after dropping a fly ball with two outs in the first inning.

And yet, the error became a rallying point as Lake Washington's bat awoke loudly, scoring three runs in the second inning - and sending up 12 batters in the decisive third inning, tallying seven runs, including Reeve's bases-loaded triple in the right-center gap, to grab a 10-5 lead.

"That shows how it's been all playoffs," Reeve said. "Our bench keeps the energy going all day. Even on our worst plays, everybody is screaming, everybody is picking each other up.

"It is just a different bond."

Lake Washington's big rally left Eastlake's pitching and defense reeling as first-year coach Elliott Cribby could not find a reliever to stop the bleeding.

"Very uncharacteristic of our group - they've been pitching- and defense-oriented all year long," Cribby said. "It was just one bad day."

In the fifth inning, Brady O'Cain laced a two-run triple into the left-center gap, followed by RBI singles from Logan Schuster (team-high four RBI) and Noah Kwon to push the lead to 10 runs, and invoking a mercy-rule stoppage if Eastlake didn't score in its final at-bat, which it didn't.

"I wondered how the hangover of playing a big game like that (against Puyallup) would affect us," Bingham said. "But we came back to the yard today and played three innings where we were confident about winning ... and I felt like it helped us a little bit (against Eastlake)."

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