A divine doubleheader Saturday sent the Spartans sprinting toward the state title this week, as the Bainbridge High varsity baseball team vanquished first Ferndale and then Lynnwood at the Skagit Valley Dream Field on their way to the 2015 3A State Baseball Championship final four.

The Spartans will play Mercer Island at 4 p.m. Friday, May 29 at Husky Ballpark for the right to advance to the championship game, where they will play either Shorewood or Central Kitsap at 4 p.m. in the same arena Saturday.

If they lose, however, they’re out.

The two games Saturday could not have been more different.

The 4-3 Bainbridge win over the Ferndale Golden Eagles was an 11-inning marathon bout — which saw the Spartans struggle through seven innings of scoreless baseball before sneaking in the winning run — whereas the BHS team beat Lynnwood with a solid 3-0 shutout.

The Ferndale matchup seemed destined to be a nail-biter from the get-go, with the Golden Eagles leading 2-0 after their first at bat and Bainbridge evening things up before the end of the first inning. The second saw no advancement by either side, and then both teams squeaked through another run in the third before the legendary lull began.

The day’s first game was pitched by Duncan McCombs and, later, sophomore Jason Snare.

McCombs pitched a good game, said Spartan Head Coach Simon Pollack, but slight errors on the part of the defense allowed Ferndale to score those early runs which made pulling ahead that much harder later.

“That was some jitters,” he said. “Early in the game, Duncan tends to leave the ball up there a bit and is susceptible to those base hits, but then [he] settled down.

“We had some weird defensive stuff go on, but I don’t think that we ever thought that we couldn’t do it,” he added.

What was definitely not weird were several stellar double plays the Spartans pulled off in the later innings.

In fact, Pollack said, the game saw more double plays than the team had managed all season.

“The defense initially kind of took us out of it, then the defense brought us back into it,” Pollack said. “It was huge for us, for sure.”

Offensively, Pollack said, there were some rough spots in the middle of the lineup, but everyone did a good job overall.

“Toward the middle [and] end of that game we just took a lot of really poor at bats,” he said. “The reason we didn’t score up a lot of runs was because we took some poor at bats [but] we still left a bunch of runners on base. I definitely am at fault for not advancing guys probably earlier than I could have.”

Ferndale is a solid opponent, Pollack said, and the team was not taking the win for granted. If any aspect of the team’s game was lacking, he added, it was off the field.

“I think that we had more momentum more often,” he said. “Their dugout wasn’t really in it, which kind of surprised me. Their fans were, but their dugout really wasn’t too loud. I think that helped us stay on top a bit.”

Noticeably absent from the mound in the first game was regular Spartan pitcher Trent Schulte, who instead was held back for the day’s second matchup.

“Even though Duncan doesn’t wake up very well, they still decided he was going to go first and I’m glad,” Pollack said. “He also had a little bit of a calf issue, but I think he battled through his soreness and a little tightness in his legs and really stepped up and did a huge job after that first inning, did a really great job.”

Snare stepped in later in the game to close. A Spartan up-and-comer, Snare was the right man for the mound during a very tense time, Pollack said.

“He is perfectly capable,” the coach said. “He’s been pitching on JV all year, but I put him down there because he wouldn’t have gotten the starts up here [on the varsity squad].

“Jason’s ready for the big time,” he added. “He’s ready to pitch at a varsity level for sure.”

With the Spartans set to lose a large crop of pivotal players, Pollack added, younger players with tournament experience would be a much-needed asset next season.

“Generating your own momentum in baseball is incredibly important,” he explained. “Difficult to do at times, but that’s just what you’ve got to do, especially when there’s not a lot going on in there in the middle innings, especially when you get down.”

The Spartans rode their own latest wave of momentum into the day’s second game a few hours later, which proved a much more decisive victory.

Surrounding the team, which boasts 12 seniors (almost all with previous State tournament experience), is a definite air of “now is the time.” The team has inched one game closer to the title for the past several season and now, with so many talented players set to graduate, next season may prove a more difficult road for the BHS squad.

With their sights set squarely now on state, several Spartans have already racked up some league-wide recognition and been named to the 2015 Metro All-Conference Players roster.

Max Thomas was selected as part of the first team infield, as was Carter Kraus for the second team.

Bainbridge’s go-to man on the mound, Trent Schulte, was named as a first team pitcher.

Duncan McCombs was named first team utility.

Truman Miller, Brice Koslosky, Jack O’Neill and Blake Swanson were listed as honorable mentions.

Mercer Island, now the only team standing between the Spartans and the championship game, finished their regular season in third place in the KingCo 3A/2A bracket — behind Bellevue and Lake Washingon — with a record of 14-7-2.