Washington head baseball coach Brad Lucas likes his team’s attitude as they crank up for the State playoffs and a run to defend their title again.

“The whole team is ready to get it going,” Lucas said. “It’s neat seeing our playoff baseball mentality.”

Lucas has tried to put his team in a position where they’ve been tested during the regular season through a highly competitive schedule.

“We finished up a really tough schedule and had a good record through it,” he said.

Sulphur

Washington beat Sulphur 5-1 last Thursday.

Owen Andrews pitched a complete game, striking out seven batters while allowing four hits and giving up four walks.

“He pitched it really well,” Lucas confirmed. “He and Spencer Barton can both throw complete games and that helps us.”

Liam Keltner went 2-3 at the plate with a double and had one ribbie.

Jackson Mays was 1-2 with a double. He also had two walks and scored twice.

Mays and Keltner are both hitting above the .400 mark.

Washington plodded along, scoring runs in four of the six innings of play.

Mount St. Mary

Washington beat Mount St. Mary in the last inning on a two-out Andrews single that plated both runs. He was 2-4 on the night.

“It’s kind of short and up hill to right field and he hit it off the wall,” Lucas said. “The ball bounced back hard and they got it in or he’d have gotten more bases.”

Easton Vinzant led off the inning with a single as a pinch hitter.

Dawson Thomas was up next and singled. The runners both ended up in scoring position on the play.

Keltner walked to get Andrews to the plate and he came up with the hit.

The game was scoreless until the sixth inning when The Mount scored one run.

Barton was firing on all cylinders on the mound, striking out five batters while only allowing three hits.

“We played really well Thursday and Friday,” Lucas said. “We had good pitching and the defense played well behind them.”

Newcastle

The Warriors were not able to get much traction in their 9-0 loss to Newcastle, who has a chance of winning Class 5A.

“They are really good,” Lucas said. “They have good pitching and we saw 94 (miles per hour) from their pitcher. I was happy to see us barrelling up the ball quite a bit.”

Washington is 26-6 this season.