The 8-8 Sumner High baseball bunch found itself rooting against Lakes High earlier this week, as – at press time – the Lancers were playing a makeup doubleheader against Peninsula and Clover Park to ultimately decide Lakes’ fate, as well as the fate of Sumner and White River, both sitting at 8-8 in league.

If Lakes lost either game in the decisive twinbill, Sumner would automatically advance to the postseason in a fifth seed capacity representing the South Puget Sound League 3A, by virtue of the Spartans beating the Hornets twice during the regular campaign.

The Spartans held their destiny in their own hands last week as had they won all three of their contests with White River, Franklin Pierce and Bonney Lake, they would been a cinch to go to the playoffs as the fourth seed out of the SPSL 3A.

As fate would have it though, a talented but younthful Sumner squad could only pull out the win in a 5-3 nailbiter in Buckley, losing at Franklin Pierce Thursday by the score of 5-2 and then hosting Bonney Lake on Friday and dropping that all-important contest 6-4.

“The other teams in the league know that we have lived and died with our great hitting this season,” said Sumner skipper John Welker, “so in the last two games we played last week we probably went up against the two best pitchers in the SPSL 3A, because they earmarked them for us.”

Reach John Leggett at jleggett@courierherald.com or 360-802-8207.