The Friday Harbor baseball team punched its ticket into the state 1A tournament with a decisive 14-4 win over Bellevue Christian at home Thursday in opening round of the Tri-District playoffs.

The fireworks started early as the Wolverines, the Tri-District No. 5 seed, pounded out 13 base hits over the first three innings and led 11-0 going into the fourth. Senior Tanner Buck stoked the offense in his first trip to the plate by swatting a 2-run homer that gave the Wolverines an early lead and the home crowd a preview of things to come. Buck was 2-of-3 at the plate with a sacrifice fly and drove in three runs.

With the victory, Friday Harbor clinched a berth at State and will face Chimicum Friday at Coupeville in the Tri-District second round.

“It feels great,” senior Shawn Cutting said of securing a berth at State. Cutting held the Vikings scoreless over the first three innings and struck out four before giving way to Austin Lambright for the fourth.

“We’ve been stroking the ball real well lately and hopefully we can do it again tomorrow,” Cutting said.

They will play either at 3 p.m., with a win, or at noon, if they lose, Saturday at Skagit Valley College, in Mount Vernon, depending on the outcome of Friday’s match up against Chimicum.

Roy Taylor stroked a pair of doubles and tallied two RBIs, and fellow senior Alex Jangard poked three singles in four at-bats against the Emerald City League Vikings.

Bellevue Christian’s Jojo Howie accounted for all four of the Vikings runs with one swing of the bat. With the bases load, Howie belted a pitch off sophomore Brian Lambright that cleared the centerfield fence for a grand slam.

— Scott Rasmussen