ANACORTES — Ninety feet away.
That’s how close Lynden was to clinching the 2A District 1 baseball title Saturday against Archbishop Murphy.
The Lions fell to the Wildcats 5-4 in eight innings, denying Lynden the come-from-behind win.
Lynden was also three outs away from ending the game in the seventh inning. Clinging to a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the final inning, sophomore pitcher Lane Simonsen was looking to shut the door and toss a complete game.
After giving up a leadoff single, Simonsen struck out the next batter, but lost his touch and walked the next two batters to load the bases.
“I couldn’t execute some pitches when I needed to, so that definitely hurt, but Hermanutz came in and did his job,” Simonsen said. “He threw strikes, but we couldn’t finish it out.”
With one out and three on, junior Kaedan Hermanutz came in to pitch. Hermanutz’s first pitch was sent to right field for a double that brought in two runs and gave the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
Hermanutz pitched himself out of trouble, but not before Archbishop Murphy pushed another run across on an RBI groundout.
The Lions trailed 4-2 with only three outs left to give up in the game. The first three Lynden hitters reached base in the bottom of the seventh with senior Ryan Kleindel and junior Coston Parcher scoring on a throwing error to tie the game at 4-4.
An intentional walk to senior Cade Slayton and a fielding error on a bunt from senior Case Zweegman loaded the bases for the Lions with nobody out.
It was desperation mode for Archbishop Murphy. After a popup from junior Lincoln VanDiest, the Wildcats brought in their right fielder to give themselves a fifth infielder hoping to cut down the winning run at home.
That wouldn’t entirely be necessary with a strikeout and flyout ending the Lions’ threat and sending the game to extra innings.
Lynden head coach Cory White said not cashing in with the bases loaded and nobody out hurt, but isn’t what specifically cost them the game. Extra bases, errors and other details cost them, he said.
“Not one play lost the game for us, but a number of different little plays we didn’t execute or do did,” White said.
Archbishop Murphy plated another run in the top of the eighth to take a 5-4 lead. Lynden looked like it had something brewing in the bottom of the inning after an infield single from Kleindel, but he was picked off at first with Parcher at the plate.
Parcher tripled to deep left-center, but a routine fly ball to center off the bat of Ohligschlager ended the game.
“We’re 90 feet away. We’re a passed ball, a balk, a bloop hit through and we tie the thing,” White said. “There are a lot of positives, but we need to address the negatives. We’re still a good baseball team. We just have to keep going.”
Having already clinched a regional berth, the Lions’ season is still alive even with the loss.
Knowing they still have baseball in front of them makes it easier to move on from this game, Simonsen said.
“It just helps us stay hungry for the playoffs,” Simonsen said. “We have to go win two next weekend and hopefully this helps us do that.”
Lynden’s first opponent and location will be finalized after seeding is determined Sunday. Regionals are scheduled for May 21.