Sumner off to 3A state semifinals with 5-2 win over Columbia River

There’s just one problem.

How will Casey Adcox break the news to his 11-year-old son that they won’t be able to go to Friday’s Seattle Mariners game anymore?

The Sumner High School baseball coach will instead be in Pasco for the 3A state semifinals at Gesa Stadium.

The Spartans jumped on Columbia River early in a 5-2 victory on Sunday at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue to win their second game of the day – after Preston Fullington allowed one hit in a 3-1 win over Eastside Catholic in the first round of state.

So much for those M’s tickets Brayden Adcox won in a neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

"It’s pretty awesome," Adcox said. "Honestly, though, my biggest problem right now is figuring out how I’m going to tell (Brayden) we aren’t going to be able to go to the Mariners game for fireworks night. … When they make the playoffs, I’ll make it up to him and we’ll go to that.

After Fullington shut down Eastside Catholic, Sumner had to figure out how to beat a Columbia River team it had lost to, 9-4, on May 7.

Don’t commit four errors was a start like that last time.

And jump to a 3-0 lead after three innings. That seemed to work, too.

Taurus Kukahiko drove in two runs with a double and Ben Wilson added a seventh-inning single after the Chieftans had cut the lead to 3-2, to add some insurance runs. Eight different Sumner players recorded a hit.

Gabe Smith earned the win on the mound, sealing Sumner’s first trip to the state semifinals since it was a Class 2A school in 2012.

"We defended a lot better," Adcox said. "And the kids came in real loose. We felt like we were the lion in the weeds that nobody knew. That’s the one thing I’ve learned about regional weekend is it can be pretty brutal. It can be heartbreaking. Three teams go home, one team survives. But we can play. We can play."

Adcox credited the loose play to assistant coach Chris Snelling, a former Seattle Mariner who grew up in Australia.

"Well, we played cricket before both games," Adcox said. "We legitimately had a cricket ball and a paddle and (Snelling) was throwing the googly, as he calls it. The kids were actually playing in between games. So we were kind of loose, I would say."

This story was originally published May 22, 2016 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Sumner off to 3A state semifinals with 5-2 win over Columbia River."