Lakewood wins league crown
With a little help from their friends at South Whidbey, the Lakewood baseball team won the Cascade Conference championship.
The Cougars did what they had to do, sweeping their three-game series against Granite Falls to close the regular season. South Whidbey helped out, dealing Cedarcrest their fourth conference loss April 24 and relegating the Red Wolves to runners-up this season.
The conference title is Lakewoods first since 2005, when the Cougars made it all the way to the state championship game.
But while South Whidbey helped Lakewood out at the end of the season, the favors may be over.
The teams were scheduled to face off in the district tournament opener May 5 at Daniels Field in Anacortes.
Its strange the way things work out. But it worked out for us. Right now were playing much better baseball than we were the third week of the season, said Lakewood coach Larry Delaney of the Lakewood-South Whidbey series. One of the strange things about our schedule is we see a team three times in one week and then we dont see them again at all. A young team like South Whidbey can change a lot during the season.

Arlington opens districts against Meadowdale
With a split in their series against Cascade, Arlington is slated as Wescos fifth seed in the 3A district tournament scheduled to begin May 5 in Mount Vernon.
Sophomore pitcher Justin Surber went six innings in Arlingtons 6-4 game-one victory at Cascade. The Eagles allowed just four hits. But Arlington was badly bruised in the next days match, falling in just five innings to the Bruins. With the loss, Arlington fell short of Wesco North rival Everetts five wins and scheduled to face Wesco South champ Meadowdale in the districts opener.
The 3A district tournament is a double-elimination bracket made up of the five Western Conference schools and three Northwest Conference teams. The last two teams standing enter the state regionals with a chance to play in the title game at Safeco Field in Seattle.

Darrington softball wins three of four
A mostly young Darrington fastpitch team has started to find its rhythm as the Lady Loggers season draws to a close.
The girls won three of their last four games, starting with a 9-4 win in the first game of an April 28 doubleheader against Orcas Island.
Senior first baseman Jordan Corley was 1-for-3 with three RBIs in the game one victory. Corley is one of four seniors providing key leadership to this Darrington softball team, said coach Sue Howard.
When shes not pitching, senior Kimi Woodward shares shortstop duties for the team. Shes joined in this years graduating class by teammates outfielder/pitcher Kristinia Cabe and catcher Stefanie Tugh.
The rest of the team is fairly young and pretty inexperienced, so thats why were just now starting to turn things around, Howard said. They have the skills and theyre utilizing them in these situation.
Two up-and-comers for the Darrington softball team helped Woodward out at bat in the Loggers 6-4 win over Sultan April 29. Haili Wales had a double, while Crystal Tollenaal also had a double and two RBIs against the Turks.
Darrington compounded on its wins, ten-running league rival Concrete in five innings May 2. The Loggers won 12-2. Woodward and Wales had two hits and two RBIs a piece in the game, while Wales twin sister Randi had one hit for an RBI.