Following a damp and bizarre series of events spanning the last couple of weeks, the 17-9 Sumner High baseball crew will be taking its show on the road to Bellingham Saturday morning, where it will be pitted against Anacortes High School’s Seahawks.

These squads are just two of the 16-team congregation of Class 2A contingents remaining in a state pool. This championship will be decided the last weekend of May on Yakima’s Parker Field.

After the stellar pitching of senior Cameron Steffey cooled the heels of the Fife Trojans last week 2-1 in the very early stages of district play, the Spartans were able to earn their way back into the running for state glory. As a result the stage was set for a winner-to-state rubber match with SPSL 2A champion and local nemesis White River.

The Hornets had forsaken the usual subdistrict advancement avenue due to miserably wet fields and instead were shuttled through the elimination grinder courtesy of an established power-ranking formula. Therefore, the Hornets, who had not swung a bat in earnest for nearly a week and a half, had an engagement with Sumner on Franklin Pierce High School’s main diamond Thursday. The winner was assured a trip to the 16-team state tournament.

During the regular season White River had won on Sumner’s diamond and Sumner had won on WRHS’s turf, so there was the impending tie-breaker for SPSL 2A bragging rights.

Between the proficient pitching of Sumner’s Brad Falk and the still warm bats of Tyler Hidalgo, Tanner Brinkman and Seth Morgan, Sumner claimed a 4-0 victory.

Nailing down an invitation to the big dance for the second year in a row, after a quarter-of-a-century-long drought, Sumner returned to the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Silverdale Saturday to play two seeding games.

Sumner lost the initial encounter Saturday to Kingston 2-1 and then was declared the winner in a second game with Port Angeles that was rained out later on that afternoon; the Spartans held a 1-0 upper hand after five frames of soggy action.