A few missteps at just the wrong time Saturday set the Bainbridge High varsity baseball team on the road back to the Rock after a 6-3 loss to Gig Harbor ended their postseason play for the year.

The Spartans were bested at Curtis High School in University Place in the first round of the 3A State Baseball Championships, one of just 16 teams to make the final bracket.

The Spartans finished their season winning 17 games and losing seven, including a tie for first atop the Metro League regular season standings with O’Dea.

Despite some late season injuries which forced changes to the playoff lineup, BHS Co-Head Coach Doug McCombs said the Bainbridge team that took the field Saturday was nobody’s underdog.

“There were some guys injured and there were a couple of guys not in the lineup because they were injured,” he said.

“But we have 20 guys that we feel comfortable putting in in any situation, so we didn’t feel like we had any less of a team out there. We felt strong. We felt confident. Just, today, we got a few less hits than they did.

“As I told the boys, even the pitches that they hit hard were good pitches and they just did a better job than we did.”

It didn’t appear so at first, though.

On Saturday, the Spartans struck first in the top of the second with a run-scoring double by Brooks Lierle, who was later batted in on a single by Evan Ferguson.

But Gig Harbor came right back with three of their own in the bottom half of the inning, including a two-run homer to make the score 3-2.

The Spartans tied it back up in the top of the third, as two walks and a couple of pick-off attempts gone awry allowed Ethan Schulte to score and bring the count to a 3-all tie.

In the bottom half of the third, Gig Harbor put together three consecutive singles to score their fourth run and regain the lead that they would not relinquish.

Bainbridge suffered a few rapid strikeouts in their late game showings at the plate, and Gig Harbor scored two more runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth to finish off the day’s scoring.

Gig Harbor went on to play Lakeside (Seattle) later that same day, and won 9-7, advancing to face off against Edmonds-Woodway at 7 p.m. Friday, May 26 at Safeco Field for a shot at entering the semifinals. Eastside Catholic and O’Dea were also knocked out on Saturday, leaving the Metro League without a representative in the final four.

McCombs said this year’s Spartans should be very proud of their achievement, regardless of Saturday’s disappointing outcome.

“There are 65 triple A schools in the state and we’re one of 16,” he said. “They should be proud of that. They played up to the potential.”

Taking an initial look back at this, his first season at the helm, along with Co-Head Coach Bill Ackerley, McCombs said he’d take away a mix of lessons learned and prized memories.

“Reflecting, that’s pretty tough to do right now,” McCombs said. “There were some memorable moments in games. But, most of it was in practice: getting to know these guys, getting to know who they are, what buttons you need to push with that kid, and how to get these guys to mesh together and play like a team. That was fun.”

Claiming top spot in the Metro and an appearance in the top 16 teams was a bit of a Cinderella story for a team that for much of the year didn’t even have a field to play on. Rainy conditions left the Spartans’ home field unplayable, forcing them to shuffle, cancel or postpone many games in the first weeks of the season.

Added to that, many of the players come from disparate experience levels.

It all made for an interesting start to the season, McCombs said.

“They all play of different teams in the summer,” he said. “But getting them together and playing like a team, that was really fun.

“We look at the field conditions as bad hops or bad calls at the plate,” he added. “What are you going to do? You just play around it. Would we have been a better team? I can’t answer that.”

Saturday’s game marked the final appearance of some well-known Spartan sluggers: team seniors Jack Niehaus, Evan Ferguson, Brooks Wallace, Alex Farley, Matthew Spence and Ben McDonald, and also the reported final official appearance of Gregg Mesmer, longtime BHS volunteer coach, who has retired after more than 30 years with the program.

“He has so much to offer,” McCombs said of the most stalwart Spartan. “I talk to the boys about passion? That guy has all the passion in the world and he brings it every day, and what he has to add is immeasurable. His passion, his love for the boys — he truly loves these guys and wants them to go off and do great things. And he thinks that baseball is a perfect avenue to do that.

“[Mesmer] remembers every boy that’s ever played for him,” McCombs added.

The head coaching duo are set to return next season with very few tweaks to the arrangement: McCombs is the head coach on the field, running practices and assigns positions, and Ackerley is co-head coach, working with the pitchers, specifically, and advising McCombs during play and acting as the team’s general manager.

“Bill and I got along incredibly,” McCombs said. “I felt like he was my left hand. I think he felt like I was his right hand. We pretty much knew what each one of us was going to say before we said it and we supported each other. It worked out really well.

“He did 90 percent of the work off the field,” McCombs said of Ackerley, “which made my job so easy. I could just focus on between the lines. I think it was a formula and a chemistry that worked, and I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t do it again next year.”