To anyone following 4A Kingco baseball, just one week ago it would have been unfathomable to think that the Redmond Mustangs, ranked second in the state and riding a 10-game win streak going into the league tournament, would get knocked out in the third round.

But that’s precisely what happened as the Issaquah Eagles outslugged the Mustangs 13-7 at Woodinville High on Tuesday night, leaving Redmond players and coaches stunned. The Mustangs were silenced in their Kingco playoff opener on Monday, falling to Newport, 4-0, setting up Tuesday’s heartbreaking season finale.

The story of Tuesday’s game was the pitching, as the tight playoff scheduling rendered staff aces Dylan Davis and Mac Acker unusable to start the crucial loser-out game and forced Redmond head coach Dan Pudwill to use a crew of inexperienced hurlers in the pressure-packed, must-win playoff game.

“We rode them to our regular-season record,” Pudwill said of Davis and Acker. “But with the playoff schedule, it didn’t allow us to go with the pitching staff that we really wanted.”

DIGGING A DEEP HOLE

Sophomore Zach Abbruzza, who amassed a 3-0 record during the regular season but got lit up during the Mustangs’ 12-10 win over Inglemoor in the tournament opener last Saturday, struggled from the get-go, surrendering four straight hits in the first inning as Issaquah jumped out to a 4-0 lead.

“I think the key was getting the lead (early) and putting the pressure on the higher-seeded team,” said Issaquah head coach Rob Reese. “That was a huge advantage.”

The Eagles’ offensive onslaught continued in the pivotal fourth inning as they plated four more runs on five hits, including a two-run single up the middle by third baseman Marcus Gann, just under the glove of second baseman Josh Bircher.

With their backs to the wall and facing an 8-1 deficit, Redmond’s bats caught fire.

It began with Davis, who laced a full-count single up the middle, and then No. 5 hitter Michael Conforto blasted a shot to right field that just cleared the fence.

Four out of the next five Mustang batters reached base, and Issaquah’s lead was narrowed to 8-5.

The Eagles, however, behind the strong relief pitching of Austin O’Neil, kept the Mustangs at bay and eventually put the game out of reach with two in the sixth and three in the seventh.

“We faced (Redmond) last week and played them close, so we just wanted to go out and play like we have the last couple games,” said Issaquah starting pitcher Spencer Rogers, who gave up five runs in four innings of work. “We’ve been hitting pretty good.”

The Eagles pounded out their 13 runs on 13 hits, while the Mustangs scored seven on 10 hits, led by Conforto with three hits and three RBIs.

DEEPER DIMENSIONS

As the game played on it became clear that luck was not on the Mustangs’ side during most of the contest, as every ball Issaquah hit seemed to have eyes, finding a hole through the infield or a gap in the outfield.

Meanwhile, Redmond blasted a number of long fly balls that got swallowed up by the pitcher-friendly confines of Woodinville High’s baseball stadium, which stretches 325 feet down the lines and 400 to straightaway center field. In fact, seven of the first nine outs made by the Mustangs were made in the air, some of them sure home runs at Redmond’s home field, Hartman Park.

“We hit the ball hard. They played us against the fence, and the park just held some of the balls that we hit,” Pudwill said. “Our offense was not the problem today, we swung the bats well.”

Even through the long faces and stunned expressions the Mustangs had as the filed out of the dugout, nothing can take away from the fact that they ran a 15-2 record in one of the state’s toughest leagues, with a team that contained just four seniors and graduated nearly its entire starting lineup last year.

Redmond’s young team may have struggled in the postseason, but with failure comes much-needed experience that will carry the Mustangs’ strong program onward for the years to come.

“I don’t know about taking anything away (from the season) right now,” said a bewildered Pudwill after Tuesday’s loss. “Maybe when I sit back and think about it later… but right now it’s just remembering the fun that we had and moving forward.”