Checking in on more high-school spring sports – fast-pitch-softball season is well under way. This past Friday afternoon at Southwest Athletic Complex, Chief Sealth International High School hosted West Seattle High School.

(Sealth’s Kentoria Taitai on the brink of scoring the team’s first run Friday)

Tough season so far for the Seahawks, who lost 18-2 and are still seeking their first win.

(WSHS pitcher Belle Watt)

The Wildcats are 3-2 on the season. Up next for both teams, home games vs. Ingraham HS, both at SWAC (2801 SW Thistle) – Chief Sealth plays Monday at 4 pm, WSHS plays Wednesday at 4 pm. The regular season runs through early May.

That’s video from West Seattle High School‘s come-from-behind win over Franklin HS at Hiawatha on Monday, with Kit Lui at the plate – the hero of the game, Porter Hammer reports:

After trailing by as much as 6 to 1 in the 4th inning, the West Seattle varsity baseball team came from behind to win in extra innings, playing 9 innings before beating Franklin 7-6. The team is now 4-1 on the year.

Down 6 to 4 in the final frame of regulation, West Seattle senior 3rd baseman Kit Lui hit a 2 RBI double to tie the game at 6 each, forcing extra innings.

Then, in the bottom of the 9th inning, Kit Lui again came up big, hitting a two out double to drive in West Seattle senior 1st baseman Anthony Coats from second base, completing the come from behind in walk-off fashion.

Kit ended the day with 4 RBIs, going 3-for-3 at the plate with 2 doubles. Kai Osaka, Nathan Villegas, and Anthony Coats all also contributed a double in West Seattle’s effort. Starting pitcher was Matt Morin, who went 4 innings, giving up 6 runs. Relieving Morin was Eli Markham, who pitched 5 strong innings, giving up only 2 hits and no runs.

The next game is tomorrow at 4 pm vs O’Dea at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue.

Here’s the full WSHS season schedule, including results of games earlier this season.

Thanks to Porter Hammer for the report and photos from the West Seattle High School baseball team’s most-recent win, including an explanation of a factor unique to WSHS home games:

West Seattle High School varsity baseball got the win versus Seattle Prep this past Friday March 23rd. They won 4-3 in a back-and-forth battle. Kai Osaka had a hit that looked like a home run, but the umps didn’t see it that way, so it was ruled a “Hiawatha Double”…but he later scored on a Jordan Berridge deep sacrifice fly.

Alex Pastrana [fielding in above photo] did hit a home run, and it was the go ahead run that won the game. Very solid pitching by Anthony Coats [top photo] and Jackson Sullivan closed it out. Sullivan got the team on the board with a RBI, and later Ulysses Hammer had an RBI “Hiawatha Double.” Jaquan Buchanan made a clutch catch in centerfield to end the game.

This was the first Metro League win that counts in the standings for new WSHS Head Baseball Coach Bryan Tupper. The team is now 3-1 on the year after dropping a heartbreaker at Garfield High School earlier in the week.

Note: A “Hiawatha Double” is the nickname for a ground rule for High School baseball games played at Hiawatha. Because there are no fences like a typical field, if the baseball is hit inside of the running track that circles the field and then rolls out, the team playing defense throws up their arms and the hitter/baserunner must stop at second base. The team is considering use of the temporary fences in the future, but for now they play without them until a decision is made.

The team’s next home game is tomorrow (Monday, March 26th) at Hiawatha (2700 California SW, just north of WSHS), vs. Franklin HS. See the full season schedule – including past results – here.

After a win over Whitman late today, the Denny International Middle School girls are celebrating a championship! The report and photos are from Denny principal Jeff Clark:

Denny Girls are City-Wide Middle School Basketball Champions!

Congratulations to the Denny International Middle School Girls Basketball team on winning the city-wide championship! We are very proud of our team for an outstanding season, filled with teamwork, hustle, and great sportsmanship!

A big shoutout to Coach Espinoza, Coach Hyde, Coach Johnson, and our Athletic Director, Mr. Rodriguez, for all that they do for our kids! Thanks also to our fantastic parents and staff who support our team and open our gym every Saturday for teams across the city to play. Go Dolphins!

Today’s championships followed a two-month season – you can see the schedule here. Today’s final score (thanks to parent Krista for the added detail) was 57-39.

In a few weeks, the West Seattle High School baseball team plays at Safeco Field – a tradition linked to fundraising via selling tickets every year to a particular Mariners home game, below cost. Parent Steve Joseph wants you to know they have tickets left for this year’s game, 7:10 pm Tuesday, July 31st, with the M’s playing the Houston Astros. Tickets are $40 for the 100 level, $20 for the 300 level. You can contact Steve if you’re interested in buying tickets – stevejoseph82 (at) gmail (dot) com.

P.S. The team’s game at The Safe this year is at 12:30 pm April 7th. Admission free!

P.P.S. The baseball team also has a spaghetti dinner/silent auction fundraiser 5-9 pm March 24th at West Side Presbyterian (3601 California SW) – tickets $10 at the door, kids under 3 free.

(WSB photo: With the trophy, right after the game)

FIRST REPORT, 2:28 PM: The West Seattle High School girls’ basketball season has just ended with a triumph – they’re coming home with the trophy for third place in the state 3A championship tournament, after a 64-58 win over Stanwood at the Tacoma Dome. What a season it was – they won every regular-season game aside from three at an out-of-state holiday tournament, and they won the SeaKing district title for the second consecutive year. Photos and details of today’s game after we get back to HQ.

THE REST OF THE STORY, 7:06 PM: The Wildcats had made it into the final four at state for the first time, and they were clearly determined to stay there. When they took to the court at the Tacoma Dome this afternoon against the Stanwood Spartans, it was for third place vs. fifth place. So defeat was not an option.

The victory was a combination of various factors – not the least of which was a tour de force by #11 Jasmine Gayles, who led all players with 33 points, triple what she had done sixteen hours earlier in their loss to Gig Harbor.

Speaking of triple, that was another factor – seven 3-pointers for West Seattle today, compared to just two on Friday night. #4 Kelsey Lenzie again had two, plus Gayles had three in her pile of points, #21 Julianna Horne had one, and #22 Jayla Wilson contributed one as well.

Wilson was one of the reserves who got significant playing time in today’s game – not in the classic “put in the backups toward the end” move, but instead, head coach Darnell Taylor had an almost-all-reserve squad on the court toward the end of the first quarter. #23 Braeden Swanson snagged two steals during her 7 minutes on the court:

So let’s get to the rest of how it unfolded:

Stanwood was first on the scoreboard; the Wildcats tied it quickly with Gayles’ first field goal, which she followed with her first 3-pointer two minutes later.

The Spartans were not an easy opponent. They outrebounded West Seattle in the early going, and while the Wildcats held a lead for much of the first quarter, Stanwood went on a run and pulled ahead 14-12 by the end of the 1st quarter.

By two minutes into the second quarter, most of the starters were back on the floor. Gayles tied things up with a basket seconds later; Stanwood answered with a three; then a basket by #20 Grace Sarver (5 points today) cut the Spartans’ lead to one.

But Stanwood was controlling the game for a while at that point, and pulled out to an 8-point lead with 2:08 until halftime. Horne trimmed it with a three.

And this is where Wilson got her three:

And by halftime, the Wildcats were only one point back, 31-30.

They emerged into the second half in roaring style, scoring first and reclaiming the lead with a basket by #32 Meghan Fiso (second-leading WSHS scorer with 12 and top rebounder with 7), who followed it up with another one shortly thereafter.

She and her teammates shot well in the second half, with 52 percent accuracy, after a chillier 35 percent in the first half. They held the lead for the rest of the quarter and then some, fighting harder to keep possession when it was in jeopardy – one sequence at 2:52 to go in the third was especially memorable, with WSHS hanging on despite players taking a fall and frantically rolling the ball toward teammates. The quarter ended with WSHS ahead by five, 49-44.

Stanwood got a fast basket at the start of the quarter; Wilson responded with one of her own. Then a Stanwood three; then a Lenzie three, and at 5:35 the Wildcats were still up five points, 54-49. But then things got a little dicey, and the Spartans briefly took the lead, 55-54. Then Gayles continued her heroics, with the next three West Seattle baskets all hers, and Westside never looked back, up six points, 64-58, when time ran out. Here’s how the game ended:

After that, the trophy ceremony, and photo-op time:

None of the West Seattle starters are seniors – so head coach Taylor and assistant coaches Karyn Golgart and Tommy Wiltzen have a promising 2018-2019 season to anticipate.

–Tracy Record (words) and Patrick Sand (pictures), WSB co-publishers

(Fourth-quarter 3-pointer by #4 Kelsey Lenzie, who had both of WSHS’s threes tonight)

FIRST REPORT, 10:43 PM: The West Seattle High School girls’ sterling season has one more game to go – but it’ll be for state 3A third place instead of first, after their 55-46 loss to Gig Harbor at the Tacoma Dome minutes ago. Photos and full details of tonight’s game after we get back to HQ; Saturday’s game will be here at 1 pm against Stanwood.

(WSB photos by Patrick Sand)

ADDED 1:30 AM: What the Wildcats ran up against on Friday night was a team that managed to play more of the game on its own terms, not West Seattle’s. All season long, the West Seattle girls have mostly run opponents ragged. And when they got the Tides going that way tonight, they gained ground – but not enough to overcome a deficit that piled up early.

#20 Grace Sarver (13 points, 5 rebounds) opened the game with a basket that put West Seattle on top 2-0 – their only lead of the game. The Tides played a slower, wait-for-the-opening type of basketball, and extended the lead to 13-2 before the Wildcats got their next points. The first quarter ended with Gig Harbor leading 16-7.

Though the Tides’ defense didn’t have the up-close intensity of their opponents, they seemed to capitalize on almost every slipup, and even found opportunities in routine West Seattle moves, like long passes – somehow a Gig Harbor player would materialize in the path of the pass and swat it away.

The Tides netted the first four points of the second quarter and things looked a little grim until #32 Meghan Fiso (12 points, 12 rebounds) matched those four points, followed by one of Lenzie’s two 3-pointers, narrowing the gap to 20-14. The Tides’ star performer #10 Brynna Maxwell quickly tossed in one of her own. (Gig Harbor out-tripled West Seattle, 6 to 2, more than accounting for the point-total spread.)

(#11 Jasmine Gayles, 11 points, 4 rebounds)

At this point, WSHS got the game going faster, but GH was outrebounding the Wildcats and just didn’t let them get on a roll. They were still seven points back at halftime, 25-18.

As she had done at the start of the game, Sarver got the first points of the second half, a field goal narrowing the gap to 25-20. They battled to shave that a bit by 5:18 to go in the third, when it was 30-26. And a Fiso basket got the Wildcats to within two at 2:37 left in the third, 32-30. That was as close as they got; Gig Harbor added five points in the next minute-plus. Fiso also had the quarter’s final basket, sending the game into the 4th with Gig Harbor still ahead, 37-32.

The final quarter started with intensified defense from West Seattle, as the girls knew they had to not only start outscoring the Tides to have a chance, but also had to put a lid on them. It looked good for a bit … but the Tides refused to be stifled, and the Wildcats didn’t get any closer than a five-point margin, twice, before the quarter’s midpoint.

Fouls cost West Seattle too, even before the final moments where the trailing team is all but obliged to foul. GH #33 Maddie Willett sank four foul shots in relatively rapid succession.

There was a momentarily thrilling flash of comeback hope around the two-minute mark, when Lenzie’s second 3-pointer cut the lead in half, 47-44. But Gig Harbor got two fast baskets, followed by two foul shots, and led by 9 with less than a minute to go.

A basket by #21 Julianna Horne concluded the WSHS scoring, and then it was over – Gig Harbor heading to the title game vs. Garfield, West Seattle bound for the third-place contest. But keep in mind – tonight’s game was the furthest they’ve gone in their three trips to state over the past four years.

(WSB video: Fourth-quarter basket by tonight’s top WSHS scorer, #11 Jasmine Gayles)
FIRST REPORT, 8:38 PM: The West Seattle High School girls just won their first game in this year’s state 3A basketball-championship tournament at the Tacoma Dome – 46 to 40 over Seattle Prep – and that means they play in the semifinals here Friday night at 9 pm, vs. the winner of the Bethel-Gig Harbor game that starts here shortly. Photos, more video, and details after we get back to HQ.

THE REST OF THE STORY, 11:59 PM: Gig Harbor won, so that’s who West Seattle will face on Friday night. But before we consider that further – here’s how tonight’s Wildcats win unfolded. One thing about them – they aren’t a team built around one standout; they have three stars shining amid a galaxy of talented teammates. On any given night this year, it’s been #11 Jasmine Gayles, #32 Meghan Fiso, and/or #20 Grace Sarver piling on the points and/or pulling down the rebounds. Tonight, Gayles was atop the stats.

But that was after Fiso scored West Seattle’s first 8 points, two of them on 3-pointers, including this one:

Gayles contributed the next six, and WSHS was out to a 14-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Wildcats had beaten the Panthers in both their previous two meetings of the season, and they didn’t seem terribly bothered by them now.

Foul shots by #4 Kelsey Lenzie padded that lead out to 10 points as the second quarter began. But then, the Prep players gained their footing, and cut the West Seattle lead to two points by mid-quarter. A few minutes later, they regained the lead, 19-18, though Sarver took it away with a three at 1:20 left in the half, after #34 Anissa Babitu pulled a steal.

The problem at that point was that they were being outrebounded. Prep managed to add three points before the buzzer sounded for halftime, and the Panthers held a 22-21 edge.

The Wildcats reclaimed the lead in the first minute of the second half, thanks to a Fiso field goal. The teams traded the lead for a few minutes, and then this Gayles basket put West Seattle ahead for good:

Last West Seattle scoring of the third quarter was a basket by #21 Julianna Horne, extending the lead to 36-28.

A Prep three-pointer made a dent in that – but that still sent the Wildcats into the final quarter with a 36-31 advantage, and they seemed clearly in control. #5 Rilcy Newsome was in the game with two minutes to go and kept the momentum high, including a basket and some key rebounds:

Things got momentarily nerve-wracking when Prep got within four points at just under a minute to go – which in basketball can be an eternity. They of course had no choice but to gamble on fouls to try for possession, and the gamble cost them two more points from WSHS foul shots … and that’s where the game ended, West Seattle 46, Seattle Prep 40, smiles all around, including head coach Darnell Taylor:

If you’re interested in cheering them on at the Tacoma Dome at 9 pm Friday, ticket info is on the right side of the brackets page.

P.S. This is the second year in a row that WSHS has had a team in the semifinals – last year, the West Seattle boys took third place at state.

(#20 Grace Sarver in defense mode, WSB photo from November 2017)

Thanks for the tip! As the district-champion West Seattle High School girls get ready for 3A state play starting Thursday night, the Wildcats’ Grace Sarver has just earned an honor: First-team recognition in The Seattle Times‘ winter Star Times picks. The Times describes the junior guard as “One of the fiercest defenders in the Metro League.” See the full Star Times list here. And see Sarver and her teammates’ first state-championships game at the Tacoma Dome at 7:15 pm Thursday (March 1st), vs. the winner of Wednesday’s Seattle Prep–Shorecrest game. (Missed our coverage of the WSHS girls’ Saturday night win over Garfield? It’s here.)

(Last few seconds of tonight’s game – WSHS in blue)

FIRST REPORT, 7:19 PM: Though the West Seattle High School girls were guaranteed a spot in the state tournament anyway, it was still a big deal to take this victory over Garfield, moments ago at Bellevue College, 56-53. Their first game at state will be 7:15 pm Thursday (March 1st) at the Tacoma Dome, vs. either Seattle Prep or Shorecrest, who face off on Wednesday. Photos and details when we get back to HQ!

9:50 PM: Garfield was the last team that won a game against the Wildcats this season – two weeks ago in the Metro tournament – and the WSHS girls were clearly determined this wouldn’t be a repeat.

They had to shake off a rocky start to get on the path to victory, though. Their shooting and rebounding took a while to get to the usual level of excellence. Garfield got out to a 4-0 lead two minutes into the game – but that was the widest lead the Bulldogs ever managed. Two foul shots by #20 Grace Sarver and baskets by #11 Jasmine Gayles and #32 Meghan Fiso got WSHS the lead, 6-4, two minutes later, and by the end of the first quarter, the Wildcats were ahead 14-8.

Gayles (10 points for the game) was first to score in the 2nd quarter. But then Garfield went on a run – not just hot shooting, but temporarily owning the boards, and after 10 unanswered points, they had the lead, 18-16, with 4:32 to go in the half. But WSHS didn’t let them pull away, and was back out in front, 27-23, at halftime.

Both teams came back out of the locker rooms ready to scrap for every possession. Garfield netted the first four points of the second half, tying things up again, but Sarver sunk a basket and #4 Kelsey Lenzie tossed a three, followed by a backhand basket, to put WSHS seven points ahead and regain the momentum just two minutes into the second half.

Things were run-and-gun for a while, and Garfield made up some ground, getting to just one point back with less than a minute and a half in the quarter – Fiso (with a 16-point night) quadrupled the lead instantly with a three-pointer, but two quick Garfield baskets erased it at :33 to go. A Fiso basket sent West Seattle into the fourth quarter ahead by two points, and half a minute into the final period, she got another one, with Sarver’s backhand basket at 7:11 stretching the WSHS lead to six points. Not long thereafter, she added a three, bringing WSHS to its biggest lead of the game at 48-40; the Bulldogs responded with a three of their own, and Sarver cut through their sometimes-smothering defense after that to sink one (on her way to a 20-point game).

Garfield remained behind the rest of the way, no closer than three points back – first at 4:45, with another Lenzie three making a “you’re not closing the gap” statement, and then toward game’s end, as time ran out. As you can see in our clip at the top of the story, the buzzer sounded with the Garfield ball-holder being double-teamed.

The victory gets WSHS a first-round bye at state, and one extra day to rest up before facing either Seattle Prep, who they’ve beaten twice this season, or Shorecrest (here’s their record) at state. See the brackets here; we’ll be there. (During games, we update quarterly, sometimes more often, on the WSB Twitter feed.)

Photos by Patrick Sand; narrative by Tracy Record – WSB co-publishers