Selah baseball stalls in semifinal loss to Lynden

BELLINGHAM – In the Class 2A semifinal nightcap Friday at Joe Martin Field Selah was out-Selah’d.

Fifth-seeded Lynden pitched, hit and ran its way past the top-ranked Vikings 11-0 in five innings to advance to Saturday's 7 p.m. final against No. 2 Tumwater, the defending champion which eked past third-seeded W.F. West 2-1 in the first semi.

Selah (22-3) and the Bearcats will meet for third at 1 p.m.

“We knew coming in that they pitched and they hit,” Selah coach Mike Archer said. “They hit and they pitched so well – that guy is a dude.”

That guy was Lynden junior right-hander Lane Simonsen, who struck out six and faced the minimum in two of the five innings and retired 10 straight batters early on. The University of Washington commit scattered three hits through the first four innings before the Vikings put together their biggest threat with three hits in the fifth.

“We told them we had to have nine quality at-bats, we had to make him compete for every out,” Archer said. “I don’t think we swung badly. We just didn’t stay in it so when we got any baserunners, we could do anything that we do.”

Selah senior and CWAC MVP Carter Seely, meanwhile, was jumped on early by the Lynden lineup. The Lions batted around in the first and third, scoring four runs in each of the innings.

The Vikings also issued seven walks and hit three Lynden batters with pitches.

Lynden’s station-to-station attack looked much like what the Vikings have been doing to their opponents for years and especially the last two weeks.

The Lions had nine hits, but just one of them was for extra bases and two of them didn’t make it out of the infield on the all-artificial turf playing surface.

Selah nearly avoided being 10-run-ruled in its last at-bat. Right-fielder Mason Bailey led off with a double and Evan Ancira and James Hull each followed outs with infield singles to load the bases. Simonsen, though, induced a ground ball out to end the game.

The loss ends an 18-game winning streak for the Vikings, nine of which were of the shutout variety and five invoked the mercy rule.

W.F. West awaits Selah in Saturday’s game for third place. The Bearcats fell to their league rivals in walk-off fashion. Tumwater beat the Chehalis school in four of the five times they played this season and avenged a loss in the district final.

Archer said the consolation game should be a matter of pride for the Vikings.

“We told them that tomorrow is a really tough game to play but you owe it to your teammates, you owe it to yourself, you owe it to the program to go out there and be a great competitor and play tomorrow It’s not easy and it bothers them and it hurts and that’s why they’re champions.”

Lynden (22-6) will play for its first baseball championship and the chance to complete a sweep of the big three sports. The Lions beat North Kitsap for a repeat as football champions and then successfully defended their basketball championship by beating Mark Morris at the SunDome in March.

Selah highlights: James Hull two singles, Mason Bailey 2b.