Squeeze play on for WRHS

Playing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, the White River baseball bunch lost two of three games and very well could be getting squeezed out of the playoff scene as a consequence.

Playing Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week, the White River baseball bunch lost two of three games and very well could be getting squeezed out of the playoff scene as a consequence.

After initiating its week, losing a critical cliffhanger at home to a tough Sumner squad 5-3, White River sandwiched in a clutch 5-3 victory over Bonney Lake in Buckley, Thursday before visiting a red-hot Enumclaw squad Friday night at Osborne Field, and getting blanked 5-0, to close out the regular season at 8-8.

At press time, Lakes High at 6-8 in league, still had a league twinbill to play versus two lesser foes in Peninsula and Clover Park, who have won a combined total of two league games. If the Lancers lost either one of those tilts Sumner (also 8-8) would officially be the fifth seed to represent the South Puget Sound League 3A in the upcoming subdistrict tournament, in that the Spartans beat White River twice during the 2009 campaign.

Should Lakes have won both games of that all-important doubleheader however, that would create a three-way tie for the fifth seed, because Sumner, White River and Lakes, would all be 8-8, thus creating the necessity for White River and Lakes to square off and the winner of that game would then go against Sumner at a neutral site this week, to decide that last seed before subdistricts begin this weekend at Auburn Mountainview High and Russell Road Park.

In the 21-hit, errorless slugfest between White River and Bonney Lake, which the Hornets won 5-3, senior Jeremy Hoffman and junior Dustin Stroud gathered a pair of hits apiece, with Stroud smacking a double and a dinger.

John Leggett can be reached at jleggett@courierherald.com or 360-802-8207.