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Sports

UPDATE: Baseball: Woodinville Offense Breaks Out, Falcons Advance in Playoffs

Woodinville's offense breaks out and the Falcons advance in the KingCo playoffs with a 11-6 win over Ballard.

Editor's Note: Falcons lost to Inglemoor Tuesday night 9-8.

The Woodinville baseball team has struggled all season with consistency. Fans of the team never know which version will show up: the "on" or the "off" version.

Monday night was definitely an "on" night for the Falcons.

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Carl Svanevik knocked in four runs and Spencer Greer settled down after a rocky first inning to lead Woodinville to a 11-6 win over Ballard and keep the Falcons alive in the KingCo 4A playoffs on Monday night at Inglemoor High School in Kenmore.

Woodinville built a 11-2 lead heading into the top of the seventh and then had to sweat out a Ballard rally that saw the Beavers load the bases and push across four runs before Kalei Kover got Weber Steven to ground out to end the game.

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"We've done that a few times this year," Woodinville head coach Terry Agnew said of letting Ballard back in the game. "But it worked out well tonight, so we get to move on."

Woodinville was coming off a lackluster 4-1 loss to Skyline on Tuesday in the opening round of the postseason and looked to be headed for a similar fate early in this one. Ballard jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning and Beavers pitcher Caleb Jaeger set the Falcons down with ease in the first two innings.

But Woodinville broke out in the third inning, with Svanevik providing the punch. The Falcons loaded the bases with one out, but, after a force out at home, Ballard had a chance to get out of the inning with the lead. But Svanevik laced a two-out hit to center field to drive in two runs and put Woodinville in the lead for good.

"Carl had some big RBI's tonight," Agnew said. "He hit the ball really well."

Greer did the most with the lead, not allowing a hit over his final 4 1/3 innings of work as the Falcons added to their lead.

"They had a couple of ground balls that just dribbled through the infield," Agnew said of the first inning. "It was good that he came back the next two innings and went 1-2-3 and gave us a chance to swing the bat a little bit and get back in the game."

Woodinville is at its best when it's playing small-ball and the Falcons were in fine form once they gained the lead. Woodinville put together two successful hit-and-runs and stole three bases, while advancing on wild pitches three additional times. Woodinville added four runs to its lead in the bottom of the fifth inning on another two-run single by Svanevik and one by Greer.

"If we could have this offense all year, we'd be number one, there wouldn't be a question about it," Greer said. "Unfortunately the ball doesn't always bounce our way."

Woodinville finished off the scoring with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, two on a rare successful "pickle" by the Falcons. After Shea Donlin knocked in a run with a base hit to right, he was caught up between first and second. Anthony Florentine took off from third while Donlin was caught in the rundown and scored without a throw, while Donlin dove underneath a tag attempt and then crawled safely into second.

With the win, Woodinville advances to play Inglemoor, which they've beaten, on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at their home field. The Falcons will either pitch staff ace Marty Luckenbach on two days rest or one of their less experienced pitchers.

"We'll see," Agnew said of the pitching situation. "We're not quite sure what we're going to do [Tuesday] night pitching-wise."

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