Southridge hopes to shine against top-ranked Mercer Island in 3A baseball semis

Though the Seattle Mariners have looked nothing like a World Series team the past couple of months, champions will be crowned on their home field this weekend.

The Southridge High School baseball team plays Mercer Island at 4 p.m. Friday in the semifinal round of the Class 3A tournament at Safeco Field.

It’s the second straight year the Suns have reached the final weekend of the state playoffs, and the third time in school history.

“It’s the hard work, the dedication, playing through adversity, it’s all of it,” Southridge coach Tim Sanders said of the Suns making it to state back-to-back years. “They’re the guys that we want. They’ve kept the program moving in the right direction.”

In the Suns’ first state appearance, in 2005, they won the Class 4A title. Last year, they lost to Lake Washington in the semifinals at Gesa Stadium, but rallied back to beat Sumner 11-0 in the third/fourth-place game.

“We’ve moved on, it’s a different group, different personalities,” Sanders said. “But when that happens, we’ve gotta reflect back about, you know, ‘are we gonna change?’ The coaching staff is all about ‘we’ve gotta get better every year.’

“The group that was around here last year saw it. You’ve gotta go get this one, and everyone out here wants it, there’s no doubt about that.”

The Islanders enter the semis with one of the most impressive résumés in the state.

They won the KingCo 3A regular-season and tournament championships, won their two state regional games by a combined 22-4, and boast a 20-2 record while facing one of the toughest schedules in the state. MaxPreps has Mercer Island ranked as the top team in Washington — Southridge is third.

“Sometimes you get caught up in (scouting) information that’s available to you, and you don’t focus on your basic information from what the game is telling you,” Sanders said. “We’ve gotta play our game. We’ve gotta field ground balls, we’ve gotta throw strikes, we’ve gotta situationally hit. If you get a guy on, you’ve gotta get him over, you’ve gotta get him in.

“That’s worked out for us this year, and we’ve just gotta keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

Southridge (22-4) won the Mid-Columbia Conference championship, going 12-2 in league play, but lost the bi-district championship to Kamiakin on May 9. The Suns rallied back to beat Mt. Spokane in the MCC-GSL consolation game and topped Lake Washington in the crossover, then got revenge on Kamiakin in the first game of regionals and beat O’Dea in the nightcap.

It was a tough road to Seattle for the Suns, but Sanders sees that paying dividends at the tourney.

“We’ve made it through some tough fields, and that’s kind of battle-tested us,” he said. “The playoffs haven’t been easy for us, and they shouldn’t be. You grind through these things, and I think it makes you a better man coming out of it.”

The final weekend of the 3A and 4A tournaments is back at Safeco for the first time since 2010 — a cathedral befitting some of the best high school baseball the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

“That certainly adds to it,” Sanders said. “It’s the final four no matter where you play it, and at the end it’s just another baseball game. It’s a beautiful track, and on that field there’s no excuses. It’s a big envorionment, and for big games, that’s probably the way it should be.”

Gig Harbor battles Edmonds-Woodway in the other semifinal game. The 3A championship game begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, with the consolation game beginning at 1 p.m.

1A

Playing in its first final four, Tri-Cities Prep (25-0), the only undefeated team in the state, faces Napavine at 4 p.m. at Wheeler Field in Centralia. Colfax plays Wahkiakum in the other semifinal.

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Southridge hopes to shine against top-ranked Mercer Island in 3A baseball semis."