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Dressed for success are these La Conner High Braves.
More specifically, dressed to the nines after fashioning a key 6-4 road win over Friday Harbor last week that broke a first place tie and lifted the Braves into sole position atop NW2B baseball standings.
The sometimes gritty, blue-collar triumph at Friday Harbor was La Conner’s ninth straight win.
More important, it completed a two-game season sweep of the Wolverines, who fell to 7-4 in league play.
La Conner improved to 9-1 in conference action.
“It was another good week for us,” said Braves coach Jeremiah LeSourd, whose club has played near flawless baseball since early April.
For La Conner, it all starts with pitching.
Braves hurler Max Miller kept his mound mark perfect at Friday Harbor, winning for the eighth time in as many decisions, fanning 10 batters and yielding just one hit over six innings.
“He turned in another strong performance for us,” LeSourd said of Miller, who gave way in the seventh to closer Cameron Hansen with a 6-4 lead but the bases filled and just one out.
Hansen earned the save with a strikeout and by inducing the final Friday Harbor batter to pop up.
La Conner had scored first, tallying a lone run in the third courtesy a Logan James single that plated Preston Stewart.
The Braves added three more markers in the fifth on run-producing singles from James, Miller, and Matt Semrau.
Leading 4-2 entering the seventh, La Conner tacked on what proved to be the decisive scores.
Erick Reinstra stretched the Braves lead to 5-2 with an RBI double. Reinstra then came around on a single by James Hulbert.
Friday Harbor rallied with two runs in the home half of the seventh, but it proved too little, too late.
“Our offense was putting pressure on their pitcher all day,” LeSourd said, “and we had runners on base in all but one inning.”
In a way, the game wasn’t nearly as close as the final score indicates. The Braves on three occasions ended at-bats with the bases loaded.
La Conner had tuned up for Friday Harbor by downing NW2B rival Darrington 11-6 and non-league foe Blaine 7-4 earlier in the week.
La Conner erupted for six early runs at Darrington, riding a two-run Reinstra single and a run-producing safety from Miller.
Cooper Zavala ripped an RBI two-bagger in the third stanza, then scored on a Hansen single.
James and Miller delivered run-scoring singles in the fifth.
Hansen and Reinstra, the latter of whom came on in relief, combined to notch 12 strikeouts for the victors. Hansen checked the Loggers on two hits over four innings.
It was Taylor Swanson’s turn to take the hill opposite 2A Blaine, and he made the most of the opportunity.
“It was Taylor’s first start on the mound this year,” said LeSourd, “and he pitched five shutout innings against a real good team that played Sehome for a playoff spot on Thursday.”
The Braves backed Swanson with crooked numbers in the first and fifth innings.
La Conner pushed two runs across in its first at-bat, then exploded for a five-spot in the pivotal fifth.
James, Reinstra, and Hulbert each lined RBI singles. Hulbert’s base knock drove in two runs.
La Conner faced Cedar Park in late Monday action. The Braves remain home May 11 for a 3 p.m. Senior Day matinee pairing with Darrington.
LeSourd and Braves fans are hopeful, meanwhile, that La Conner’s winning ways stay in style going forward.
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