A night after Bellevue dropped the 3A KingCo tournament title game to Lake Washington 14-6, Mercer Island closed the door on the Wolverines’ season, beating Bellevue 4-1 in a loser-out contest Tuesday night at Bannerwood Park.

The Islanders scored four runs in a decisive fourth inning and got a dominant performance from starting pitcher Peter Lopes on an evening where Islander coach Dominic Woody noted his team had to take advantage of facing their opponents on short rest.

“They played a difficult ballgame last night and they were short in the bullpen. It was really about coming out and making them work early,” Woody said. “This is game five of the tournament, guys are gassed. You got to get in the back end of your bullpen and that’s where I like my team. I think we got a lot of arms.”

The Wolverines (18-5) struck first, with Reagan Teegarden bringing home John Enger off a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third inning to give Bellevue a 1-0 lead. But it didn’t take long for Mercer Island (16-7) to respond. Anthony Scalzo led off the top of the fourth hitting a grounder and beating out the throw to first. Alfonso Gonzalez subbed in to run the bases and made it to second on a wild pitch, and Josh Stenberg brought Gonzalez home with an RBI single to tie the game.

After the Wolverines retired the next two batters, Noah Hsue shot an RBI single into the right-center gap to give the Islanders a 2-1 lead. Michael Bantle followed with a double, and Michael Petrie capped the rally with a two-run double to give the Islanders a 4-1 advantage.

That was all Lopes would need to keep Mercer Island in the driver’s seat. In a complete-game performance, he allowed one hit and no earned runs on 66 pitches through seven innings.

“I wasn’t striking a lot of guys out, a lot of guys were just hitting balls at people and I was alright with that,” Lopes said. “I know [my teammates] are going to make plays and I know everybody on the field and in the dugout are completely capable of making plays.”

Woody was less deferential, saying on Tuesday, it was all about ‘P-Lo.’

“Coming back after throwing 20 pitches on Saturday [against Lake Washington] and to come out on Tuesday and just dominate the way he did, I can’t say enough about that kid,” Woody said. “There’s a reason he’s first team all-league. If anyone didn’t believe before, they know now.”

Mercer Island will take on the fifth-seeded team out of the 3A Metro tournament at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 16 at Bannerwood Park.