Mercer Island baseball earned its third consecutive KingCo win Friday, April 11, beating Juanita 5-2 at Lee Johnson Field. With the win, the Islanders improved to 3-1 in the KingCo standings and 5-3 overall. Starting pitcher Aidan Plummer, in his first start of the year, pitched a complete game to come away with the victory.
“It’s exactly what we needed,” said coach Dominic Woody of Plummer’s performance after the game. “He came out there and threw strikes and held them in check. That was a great start. It set the tone for the day for us.”
Plummer received plenty of help from the Islanders’ offense. After loading the bases in the third inning, Mercer Island got on the board with a sacrifice fly from Keegan Ogard and an RBI single from Harrison Goonewardene to take a 2-0 lead. Mercer Island kept the offense going into the fourth, loading the bases again and getting two more runs. Juanita responded with a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, but didn’t score again until the game’s final inning.
Michael Petrie went 2-3 and scored two runs for the Islanders, while Goonewardene went 2-4 with an RBI, Ogard was 1-3 with an RBI and Chris Lawler went 1-2, batting in a run and scoring another.
Coming off of wins against Sammamish and Interlake this week after losing its KingCo opener, Woody said it was important for his team to understand how thin the margins are in baseball.
“In that last inning, [the lead] feels a lot more comfortable at 5-1 than it really is. As a manager, you’re thinking that’s one swing,” he said. “Sometimes it’s not always about what we do, but what the other team can’t do. You just have to put the pressure on them to get the opportunity to find out.”
One big example that Woody noted came during Wednesday’s win over Interlake, when the Islanders used a nine-run inning to beat the Saints.
“We were up 1-0, and then at the end of that half-inning, it’s 2-1 after giving them a couple of runs and making three errors. Then we answered back with nine runs. It says a lot about our character and how we’re going to go about our business.”
Mercer Island will take on Bothell at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 12 at Bothell High School.
