Lincoln wins 3A state baseball title, giving school second title in a day

EVERETT — For the Lincoln Lynx, a state baseball title was a long time coming. 

Just four seasons into the program’s revival after the school was shut down for nearly 40 years, the Lynx won their second state championship on Saturday with a 6-3 victory over Lake Washington in the Class 3A state finals at Funko Field. 

Just an hour earlier, Lincoln won the Class 3A state soccer title, 1-0 over Ballard.

Lincoln (22-4) rode a six-run third inning to a historic victory against a Kangaroos pitching staff that had not allowed a single run in the state tournament, shutting out its first three opponents.

The Lynx offense managed seven hits, while starting pitcher Nicholas Saelens allowed three runs and five hits in a complete-game victory. 

“It’s incredible,” Saelens said. “Coming into this program, we’ve had these guys together since day one. COVID canceled the first year that the high school was in existence, and since then we’ve just been grinding to get here. It’s incredible, it’s a dream.”

Lincoln coach Ray Atkinson was a student at Lincoln when it was shuttered because of low attendance in 1981 before reopening in 2019, and was emotional after the game when reflecting on his team’s accomplishment. 

“(It means) everything,” Atkinson said. “I would’ve never imagined they’d reopen the school. So to be able to go home, I had a goal, to win a state championship, … To be able to do it in four years with the group you started with, is super cool.”

Center fielder Erik Petrie led off that high-scoring third inning with a walk, and Bjorn Johnson followed that up with a bunt down the third-base line, taking second on a throwing error from Kangs third baseman Will Martin that allowed Petrie to score from first base. 

Billy Versaw drove Johnson in with a single into right field, TJ Armstrong scored from third base on a squeeze bunt by Marshall Longtin and Saelens drove in two more with a single to right field. After a dropped infield pop-up by Lake Washington first baseman Carsen Mann put runners on first and second, Petrie drove in another run with an RBI single to make it a six-run game. 

The comfortable lead didn’t last long, as the Kangaroos (20-6-1) responded with three runs in the bottom of the third. Lake Washington starting pitcher Shane Johnson drove in the first run in with an RBI double to right field, and Paxton Fenberg made it a 6-2 game by driving in Johnson with a single up the middle. Fenberg scored from first base when Petrie dropped a flyball in center field, pulling Lake Washington within three runs. 

But that was as close as the Kangaroos would get, as Saelens allowed just two base runners over his final four innings. Saelens set the Kangaroos down in order in the bottom of the seventh inning, with the final out coming on a fly out to left field off the bat of Lake Washington leadoff hitter Camden Gillespie. 

Once the championship was clinched, the Lincoln players dogpiled near the pitcher’s mound, and the Lynx crowd erupted with joy. 

“I haven’t really processed it yet, but later on tonight, I think it’s going to hit me,” Lincoln first baseman and star pitcher Bjorn Johnson said. “It’s just an amazing feeling. I mean, the first championship back … it’s just a great feeling.”

For Lake Washington, it was a heartbreaking end to a successful season. Coming into the title game, the Kangaroos had won 16 of their last 17 games, and held opponents scoreless in 27 of their 28 innings at the state tournament.

“Just proud of the team’s effort and fight,” Lake Washington coach Derek Bingham said. “I told them, if I’d known at the beginning of the season that the end result would’ve been this, losing and hurting this bad, I still would’ve done it. I still would’ve done everything.”