Washington high school (WIAA) state baseball 2023: Live score updates, featured storylines and top performers

Lincoln of Seattle (3A), Klahowya (1A), Mount Vernon Christian (1B) all win morning semifinals to advance

Six state baseball champions are set to be crowned in Ephrata, Bellingham and Everett by the end of the weekend.

Follow this post for live updates and top storylines throughout the semifinal games Friday. The first games at all three sites are set to start at 10 a.m.

The schedule organized by classification is below:

CLASS 4A

No. 11 Sumner 5, No. 2 Puyallup 1

Sumner's magic run isn't over yet.

The 11th-seeded Spartans pulled off another upset in the Class 4A tournament, taking down SPSL league rival Puyallup, 5-1.

Highlighted by a four-run sixth inning, Sumner out-hit Puyallup 14-3 to pair with a dominant performance from senior Jake Bresnahan on the mound.

"These kids can hit and I think there's a quiet confidence in all of them – even the kids at the bottom of the order," Sumner coach Casey Adcox said. "They face (velocity) all the time. We never lose confidence in our bats."

Puyallup scored the first run of the game on a single by Kai Halstead that brought in Donte Grant.

The rest of the scoring belonged to the Spartans.

Sumner tied the game on a fielder's choice double play in the fifth before its big inning in the sixth.

Bresnahan pitched a complete game with nine strikeouts to send Sumner to the state championship game.

"I was feeling myself to say the least," Bresnahan said. "I was making all the right pitches when it mattered."

No. 1 Eastlake 5 vs. No. 5 Tahoma 1

It looked easy at times for Eastlake against Tahoma in the Class 4A semifinals.

The Wolves took down the Bears, 5-1, to advance to their first state championship game in program history.

Oregon State bound pitcher Bryce Johnson was about as good as it gets, pitching seven innings and giving up just one run.

“He’s been doing it since he was a freshman, so it’s awesome to be able to finish this way,” Eastlake coach Frank Smith said. “If you were a parent he would be a kid you want your daughter to date, and on top of that, he’s a really good baseball player.”

Tahoma got ahead early, 1-0, on a sacrifice fly from senior Carson Ohland, but that’s about as good as it got for the Bears.

Eastlake answered in the bottom of the second, tying the game on a Blake Borup RBI double.

The Wolves added four more in the third on RBIs from Johnson, Luke Murawski and Borup.

That four-run inning proved to be plenty for Eastlake with Johnson dealing on the mound. He threw just 75 pitches to get through the seven innings.

Eastlake, the tournament’s top seed, will play 11th-seeded Sumner in the Class 4A state championship at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“It’s going to be two scrappy teams and we’re going to go at each other and it’s going to be a battle,” Smith said. “We’re going to go with Dylan (Skolfield), we’re going to swing the bat, see what they have to offer and it’ll be a good matchup tomorrow.”

CLASS 3A

No. 2 Lincoln of Seattle 5, No. 3 West Seattle 4

Just as its done all season, Lincoln of Seattle rode the left arm of senior Bjorn Johnson to victory – this time to the Class 3A state championship game – in a 5-4 semifinal win over West Seattle.

Johnson started the game on the mound for the Lynx as expected, but West Seattle went off the expected script, sending junior Matthew Henning to the mound as its starter instead of ace Miles Gosztola.

Lincoln coach Ray Atkinson said they prepared all week to face Gosztola and were surprised to not see him start the game, but were ready to face Henning.

It didn't matter much as the Lynx pushed all five of their runs across in the first three innings.

"We weren't shocked (to see Henning). He's been throwing good, but we hit the ball well today and I thought our preparation for both of them was good because we could have gotten either one (of them)," Atkinson said.

West Seattle coach Dylan Mclauchlin said they went with Henning to start the game because his numbers stacked up with Gosztola's.

"Matthew Henning has been actually the better pitcher this year and we wanted to give him the ball because (Lincoln) has seen Miles Gosztola two times before this," he said. "We wanted to give the chance to the guy that's been doing it really well lately."

Henning pitched four innings and gave up all five of Lincoln's runs before Gosztola stepped on the mound.

It proved to be too little, too late for the Wildcats as Johnson pitched into the seventh, recording two of the final three outs. He entered the seventh at 101 pitches, nearing the limit of 105, but struck out the leadoff batter on three pitches, allowing him to pitch against the second hitter, as well.

Giles Winter recorded the last out of the game to send Lincoln to its first state championship appearance in school history.

No. 4 Lake Washington 6, No. 9 O'Dea 0

Lake Washington got on the board early and never looked back in its Class 3A state semifinal matchup against O'Dea.

The Fighting Irish trailed 3-0 before it even had a chance to step into the batter's box in the Kangroos' eventual 6-0 win.

League MVP Carsen Mann shut down O'Dea's hitters, throwing a complete-game shutout.

"He's pitched back-to-back shutouts and we haven't allowed a run in 21 innings (in the state tournament)," Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham said. "We've gone shutout, shutout, shutout and hopefully we can find a way to get one more tomorrow."

The first three Lake Washington hitters of the game reached base and senior Paxton Fenberg brought in the game's first run with a RBI single.

Senior Cooper Neilson brought in another on a fielder's choice RBI.

The Kangaroos tacked on runs in the third and fifth innings.

On the other side of things, Mann continued to dominate on the mound.

Lake Washington, winners of 16 of its last 17 games, will play Lincoln of Seattle Saturday in the Class 3A state championship game.

CLASS 2A

No. 2 Tumwater 2, No. 3 W.F. West 1

Led by Alex Overbay on the mound, Tumwater beat W.F. West for the fourth time this season.

Kyler Collier hit a walk-off sac fly in the bottom of the seventh inning to get Tumwater to its second consecutive Class 2A championship game.

 No. 5 Lynden 11, No. 1 Selah 0

The Lions batted around in the first and third innings, scoring four runs in each frame and University of Washington commit Lane Simonsen struck out six and scattered six hits.

Lynden (22-6) will try to complete the big three sweep – football, basketball and baseball – against defending champion Tumwater. The Vikings (22-3) saw their 18-game winning streak end. 

CLASS 1A

No. 3 Klahowya 3, No. 7 Cedar Park Christian 0

Sophomore Aiden Michael tossed a one-hitter and Klahowya (21-2) advanced to its first state championship. 

Nolan Rowe scored a pair of runs and stole a base for Klahowya, and Matthew Bailey doubled and scored a run. Cedar Park Christian (20-6) was the runner-up a year ago.

No. 1 Naches Valley 5, No. 4 Montesano 4

The top-seeded Rangers (24-2) scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh, aided by two Bulldogs (22-4) errors and a balk, which pushed across Porter Abrams with the winning run. 

SCAC West MVP Ty More had three hits, stole bases, scored a pair of runs and knocked in one in the winning rally.

CLASS 2B

No. 11 Adna 5, No. 2 Toutle Lake 1

4 p.m., Johnson-O'Brien Stadium, Ephrata

No. 4 Tri-Cities Prep 6, No. 1 Brewster 4

7 p.m., Johnson-O'Brien Stadium, Ephrata

CLASS 1B

No. 3 Mount Vernon Christian 9, No. 2 Liberty Christian 3

10 a.m., Johnson-O'Brien Stadium, Ephrata

No. 5 Naselle 4, No. 1 DeSales 2

1 p.m., Johnson-O'Brien Stadium, Ephrata