TACOMA -- The margins in high school baseball this time of year are fine.
A bad pitch here, bad throw there, and championship dreams fostered over the course of an entire season are abandoned in a single afternoon, a single inning, a single play.
Yet despite making three errors while their opponents played clean, the Kamiakin Braves still gave themselves a chance Friday afternoon at Cheney Stadium.
Jon Allen's collision at home plate with Mount Si catcher Robb Lane on a potential sacrifice fly turned into the final out of the Braves' 3-2 loss to the Wildcats in the 3A state semifinals.
"It's tough," said Kamiakin coach Ryan Carter. "We do not have anything to hang our heads about."
Nor can they afford to with a tough Camas squad awaiting in today's third-place game at 10 a.m.
Shorewood (23-2) handed the Papermakers (25-1) their first loss of the season, 2-1, in the morning game.
Allen represented the tying run on an afternoon when the Braves were chasing the entire game after Tim Proudfoot hit a two-run home run in the first inning off Kamiakin ace Garrett Anderson.
Allen led off the Braves' final turn at the plate with a single in the hole at short. Joey Flores bunted him over to second, and a wild pitch put him on third with Joey Jansen at the plate.
Jansen, who has 22 RBIs, hit a fly to left that seemed plenty deep to score Allen. But Mount Si left fielder Daniel Besmer fired a bullet home, and Allen had no chance. His collision with Robb Lane was reminiscent of the plays that made him an all-state defensive end for the football team, but also was an automatic out even when Lane dropped the ball.
"The base runner has to try to avoid that," Carter said. "That's the rule. You can't have contact with the catcher."
The rough-and-tumble play brought both teams out on the field and came close to igniting a brawl, but cooler heads prevailed on both sides.
"Nobody's pleased with that," Carter said. "That's not in our character and it's not our M.O."
It took Anderson an inning to settle in. He gave up just one hit in the first -- Proudfoot's ninth home run of the season 325 feet down the left-field line -- but hit the batter in front of Proudfoot and later walked another on four pitches.
Anderson was touched up for a leadoff double off the wall in left-center by Reese Karalus to start the second but got away unscathed. He settled in to set down the next 13 batters he faced until Proudfoot's one-out single to left in the sixth.
"It's a different stage," said Anderson, who suffered his first loss in more than two years and finishes his Kamiakin career 27-2. "I had to get used to the mound a little bit. I just left one pitch out there, and the kid hit a home run on it."
Proudfoot wound up scoring Mount Si's valuable third run thanks to two of Kamiakin's three errors. He stole second and kept going to third when Flores' throw sailed into center.
Trevor Lane then walked and took second without a throw. But Anderson dropped the throw back from Flores, and the ball trickled into no-man's land as Proudfoot came home for a 3-1 lead.
"I just missed it -- it ticked off my glove," said Anderson, who struck out nine and gave up just four hits in his final game with Kamiakin before heading off to Seattle University in the fall.
That two-run lead seemed pretty steep with Trevor Lane staying out of trouble on the mound against Kamiakin hitters. He allowed just six hits and a walk, striking out five.
The Braves finally broke through in the fifth when Allen hit a one-out double, was balked to third and then scored when Jansen swung on a pitch in the dirt for strike three but beat the catcher's throw to first.
Justin Berneski doubled home Blake Raekes in the sixth, and Lane finally started struggling a bit. Unfortunately for Kamiakin, the Wildcats still had one good throw in them -- from left field.
"It was a tough game, but there is a tomorrow," said senior shortstop AJ Griffiths. "We're not finished yet. There is tomorrow."
NOTES: Mount Si's 4-5-6 hitters were a combined 0-for-7 with seven strikeouts and two walks. ... The Wildcats lived up to their speedy reputation, going 3-for-4 on stolen base attempts. ... Six of the Braves will be playing at Wenatchee Valley College next year: Jansen, Raekes, Griffiths, Flores, Berneski and pitcher Bryce Drury.
Mount Si 200 001 0 -- 3 4 0
Kamiakin 000 011 0 -- 2 6 3
Trevor Lane and Robb Lane; Garrett Anderson and Joey Flores.
Highlights--Tim Proudfoot (MS) 2x3, HR, 2 RBI, 2R, SB; Reece Karalus (MS) 2B; T. Lane (MS) 7IP-6H-2ER-5K-1BB; Anderson (K) 7IP-4H-2ER-9K-1BB; Justin Berneski (K) 2B, RBI; Jon Allen (K) 2x3, 2B, R.
