Highline Baseball Grinds Out Semifinal Win Over Evergreen to Advance to Championship

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May 2, 2024

May 1 game recap. Highline vs. Evergreen.

by Jake KnightBurien-News Sports Writer.It’s the best time of the year. Since early March, teams work tirelessly every day, practicing for hours after school, celebrating the wins, learning from the losses, all in preparation for this: the playoffs.Highline finished the regular season with a 7-4 league record, good enough for the third seed in the 2A Kingco Conference. Sammamish went undefeated in league play to earn a bye straight to the championship game. Evergreen finished 8-4 in league play and would face Highline in the semifinals to fight for a championship game berth.[caption id="attachment_16877" align="alignnone" width="972"]

Highline lined up before the game[/caption]Seattle University’s home field Bannerwood Park played host to the semifinal matchup. It was ace against ace: Raiden Hang for Evergreen and Trenton Savage for Highline.Evergreen was the home team since they were the higher seed, meaning Highline would get the first crack at scoring early to set the tone, which is exactly what they did.Hawke Hansen socked a single to right-center field, immediately followed by a Jo-Jo Barron double to left-center on the next pitch to put runners on second and third with one out. Savage bounced a ball to short, scoring Hansen from third with the infield back. With two outs, Barron willed his way home. He bounced around back and forth at third base, bobbing, weaving, bluffing, and caused Hang to step off and fake a throw to third to keep him close. With Barron continuing to do the same, Hang threw a wild pitch and Barron emphatically stomped on home plate to put Highline ahead early 2-0.[caption id="attachment_16882" align="aligncenter" width="849"]

Jo-Jo Barron at bat[/caption]Zennen Luiz hit a ground ball to third to start the second, and the third baseman’s throw to first was wide, an error Luiz would take advantage of. Even though Hang struck out the next three batters in order, Luiz stole second and went from second to home on a passed ball the catcher couldn’t find pinned up against the fence, giving Highline an early three-run lead.Evergreen responded in the bottom of the second on a few mistakes from the Highline defense. A booted groundball started the inning, and a double put two runners in scoring position with no outs. A wild pitch scored the first run and a passed ball scored the next, cutting the lead to one run.In the third inning, one of the lengthier and more confusing rundowns killed a Highline threat. Roman Easter was on second, and Hansen on first with two outs in the inning. Evergreen caught Easter between second and third, but Easter escaped the rundown on a wild throw to third after multiple throws back and forth. Easter noticed nobody was covering home plate with all hands on deck for the rundown and tried to steal a run, but Evergreen quickly recovered and got Easter in yet another pickle, this one Easter was unable to escape and Evergreen kept Highline off the board.On the defensive side for Highline, Savage allowed one baserunner from the third to the fifth inning to hold on to the narrow lead.[caption id="attachment_16876" align="aligncenter" width="687"]

Trenton Savage pitching[/caption]In the top of the fifth, Highline would double their one-run lead to two runs. Easter beat out an infield single and promptly stole second base. Hansen came through for the Pirates once again on a hard-hit single to left to score Easter from second.[caption id="attachment_16881" align="aligncenter" width="719"]

Hawke Hansen's hit[/caption]The Highline defense was a bit shaky again in the bottom of the sixth. Another booted ground ball started the frame. After getting the next batter out, a routine grounder to third looked like it could end the inning with a double play. However, the second baseman pulled his foot off the base on the throw from third, and the batter narrowly beat the throw to first. With third base vacant after third baseman Jaden Barron fielded the ball to his left, the runner Raiden Hang who was called safe sliding into second took third base on a heads up play. Hang scored on a fielder’s choice the next play to make it a 4-3 game.Highline went down in order in the top of the seventh and sent Savage back out to the mound to try and finish the game and clinch a trip to the championship.Savage issued only his second walk of the game to start the frame, but got Evergreen’s nine-hole batter to line out. With the top of the order coming up, head coach Jonny Locher did not want Evergreen to see Savage for a fourth time, but applauded his ace for battling through adversity.“While there were some uncharacteristic errors, Trenton continued to lead us on the mound,” Locher said. “He was the Trenton that we have seen all year.”[caption id="attachment_16883" align="aligncenter" width="832"]

Jonny Locher walking Trenton Savage off mound[/caption]Hansen came in from short to finish the game with the tying run on base and the winning run at the dish. After starting leadoff hitter Kevin Martinez with two pitches outside the zone, Hansen blew two heaters by Martinez to even the count before unleashing a wicked slider diving out of the zone to get Martinez swinging for strike three and the second out of the inning.In another 2-2 count to the next batter, Hansen whirled a heater dotted on the outer edge of the plate for called strike three and the Pirates win the game 4-3 to advance to the championship.Video of Hansen strikeout:[videopress 2RATwVtZ]It was no easy task to come in the middle of the inning and record two strikeouts in a moment of that intensity, but Hansen is prepared for the moment.“I personally believe I have worked harder than anybody else on the field and having that confidence makes it hard to stop you,” Hansen said.[caption id="attachment_16880" align="alignnone" width="766"]

Hawke Hansen celebrating[/caption]The stage is set: Highline faces Sammamish Friday, May 3rd at 7pm back at Bannerwood Park in a battle for the hardware.“We’re preparing for Sammamish like we would any game: by striving to get one percent better,” Locher said. “We’re ready for the challenge.”