After running through the first three rounds of the playoffs by outscoring competition 27-6, Lake Washington (Kirkland, Washington) faced a stiff test in O’Dea (Seattle) in the championship game.
The Kangaroos entered the final frame with 3-2 lead and a title on the line.
They held on and won the title with heads-up defense turning into a rare double play.
With one out in the bottom seventh, a pair of O’Dea runners got on base, the Seattle Times described.
A hard grounder was hit to Lake Washington second baseman I-ly Hsue. He flipped it to the shortstop, but the play developed too slowly to get the tradition 4-6-3 double play.
Shortstop Travis Lee glanced toward third and saw the runner had rounded the base aggressively. Lee threw it over.
‼️WHAT A WAY TO END IT‼️
With the tying run on 2nd and 1 out, @KangsBaseball turns an inning ending 4-6-5 DOUBLE PLAY TO WIN THE STATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Wow. What an amazing ending to a terrific game
Lake Washington is the 3A State Champion pic.twitter.com/ra5d2oKbSA
— PBR Washington (@PBR_Washington) May 26, 2019
Game. Championship. With Lee’s vigilance and a perfect throw, Lake Washington ended its 26-2 season on top.
“Holy cow, takes a special kid to make that play,” Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham told Scorebook Live Washington.
“Not only that, but throw a strike at third and it had to be. Had to be at the waist, had to be perfect, otherwise the guy is back safe.
It wasn’t a coincidence Lee was able to make that play.
Starting pitcher Jose Vizcarra, who threw 104 pitches in six innings and gave up two runs, told Scorebook Live Washington the team practices that scenario.
“The guy always rounds third hard, so we do the back-pick at third,” he said. “It obviously hasn’t happened this year, but it happened in the biggest moment ever. Practice pays off.”
The final sequence📸 pic.twitter.com/b0OVqFyA3y
— Andy Buhler (@AndyBuhler) May 26, 2019
Lake Washington, which is in the Pacific Regional rankings, won its first championship since 2016.
Led by players such as Nation Wood, who was a freshman on that 2016 team, the pitcher-catcher duo of twins Jose and Jesus Vizcarra, and a pitching rotation as a whole that posted a 1.97 ERA, Lake Washington outscored opponents 256-58 this year, according to MaxPreps.
