Last week, the Vashon Island High School baseball team took a couple of steps forward, winning two nail- biters of three big games.

Currently, if the Pirates win their final two league games, they win the division. If they win one game, they make the playoffs, and if both games are lost, they will be eliminated. It’s all in their hands.

On Monday, April 22, the team traveled to Charles Wright for a must-win match-up. The Pirates took the lead late in the game, resulting in a 9-8 victory over their opponent.

The game was tied at 8, with Vashon batting in the top of the seventh when Aiden McCann singled on a 3-0 count, scoring Ari Dulfer from third base. Junior Ryan Rice and sophomore Mead Gill led the team with two hits each. Seniors Dulfer and Mitchel Boles, along with juniors McCann, Alex Hitchcock and Isaac Patchen, each had a hit. McCann and Patchen also walked twice, and senior Tyler Lowell provided an RBI.

McCann started, pitching 4.2 innings; Hitchcock and junior Sam Profit got the hold while Dulfer closed the game out.

On Wednesday, the team got out to a four-run lead in the sixth inning against Seattle Christian and held on for a 6-5 victory.

Dulfer, Hitchcock, Lowell and junior Jack Cunningham each had two hits while McCann, Patchen, Boles and Gill each tallied a hit of their own. Dulfer went five innings, allowing only one earned run. Patchen followed with four, and junior Logan Prouse got the big save by holding Seattle Christian in the last inning and a third.

On Friday, during a game the team would prefer to forget, they traveled again to Charles Wright and lost 5-15 in five innings. It was not the best effort by the players but they performed as admirably as they could. Dulfer had three hits, McCann had two with four RBIs, and Hitchcock had two hits. Rice and Gill provided the only other hits for a team that left for home licking its wounds.

Vashon played Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30, after press time for a position in the playoffs.

— Marc McCann is the Pirates’ baseball coach.