MOUNT VERNON — Missed opportunities on Tuesday landed the Ferndale baseball team in the consolation bracket of the Class 3A Northwest District tournament.

Converting opportunities on Saturday landed the Golden Eagles in the state tournament.

Five days after falling to Everett in the semifinals of the district tournament, Ferndale responded by beating the Seagulls 8-3 Saturday in the secondplace game at Sherman Anderson Field. The victory sends the Golden Eagles to the state tournament for the second time in

school history and the first time since 2006 when they lost to Bellevue in the first round.

Ferndale will open regional action at 1 p.m. Saturday in Yakima against the District 5/6/8 No. 1 seed, which should be either Kamiakin or Kennewick.

“This is great for the kids,” Ferndale coach Sean Linville said. “I’m really happy they made it to state. To have the kind of season we have had and not make it to state would be a real disappointment.”

Ferndale (21-3) avoided that disappointment by converting nearly every opportunity it was given against Everett on Saturday.

“We knew we had to capitalize offensively,” Ferndale’s Spencer Hannah said. “We just got the clutch hits we needed and scored runs anyway we could.”

In the bottom of the first, Max and Spencer Hannah opened with back to back singles. Casey Locker followed with a walk to load the bases. All three came around to score, one on Jordan Carr’s sacrifice fly, one on a groundout and a third on Phillip Lange’s runscoring single.

Three innings later, Spencer Hannah made the Seagulls pay for surrendering back-to-back leadoff singles to Kyle McKay and Jake Hoffman with a tworun double down the left-field line. Hannah also scored on Locker’s single.

Things were going so well for the Golden Eagles’ offense that they didn’t even need a hit to add two more runs in the fifth. Everett’s Josiah Jaurez walked the bases loaded before Tristan Higgerson drew another walk from reliever Michael Murray to force in a run. Max Hannah was hit by a pitch to bring home a second, giving Ferndale an 8-1 lead.

“The first game (against Everett) was a really tough loss because we left 13 runners on,” Linville said. “And they were all in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. It’s tough to come back from a loss like that, but the kids did. And today they showed that they had learned from that loss. They just got the job done doing whatever it took.”

The Ferndale offense gave sophomore Jeff Frost more than enough run support, as he pitched a five hitter. Two of the hits were meaningless solo home runs in the sixth and seventh innings.

“I was a little shocked at first when (Linville) asked me to start this game,” Frost said. “It’s a big responsibility to start a game like this, especially for a sophomore, and I didn’t want to let the team down.”

Ferndale got into the secondplace game by beating Shorecrest 12-9 earlier in the day behind a complete game from Locker.

The Golden Eagles actually fell behind 5-1 after 2 1/2 innings but scored three in the bottom half of the third to pull within one run.

“(Shorecrest) had one of the best pitchers I’ve seen in my five years of coaching going, but in the third and fourth inning we made him work,” Linville said. “They had to take him out in the fourth because he had thrown 107 pitches.”

With Ferndale into the Scots’ bullpen, the Golden Eagles managed to build a 9-5 lead with five runs in the fifth.

But as soon as Ferndale started feeling comfortable, Shorecrest’s James Robbins belted a grand slam in the top of the sixth to tie the game, 9-9.

“We were in danger there,” Linville said. “You could feel that hit just deflate everybody.”

But in the bottom half of the sixth, the Golden Eagles loaded the bases and Spencer Hannah cleared them with a double.

“I knew we just needed a big hit, and I was glad I could give us a boost,” Hannah said.

Hannah finished 3 for 7 with five RBI in Saturday’s two games combined. Now he’ll try to add to those numbers in the state tournament.

“It feels good to be going to state,” Frost said. “In all-star baseball, I was never on a team that made it to state, so it’s great to be going with this group of guys.”