By Tim Clinton

SPORTS EDITOR

It was a long day of playoff losses for two talented Highline High School sports teams Saturday, but the good news is it wasn’t fatal for either.

The Pirates’ boys soccer team dropped the West Central District championship match to host Franklin Pierce Saturday evening, but still advances to state as the district’s No. 2 seed to open play early this week at a time and place to be announced.

The Highline baseball team took a pair of West Central District losses on the Kitsap Peninsula earlier in the day.

The Pirates took a 10-3 loss to Fife in a 12:30 p.m. game played at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton and switched to North Mason High School in Belfair for a second contest at 4:30 p.m.

Highline found itself paired with Port Angeles and came up on the short end of a narrow 4-3 score.

Highline and Port Angeles both advance to regional play at Joe Martin Stadium in Bellingham this Saturday.

Port Angeles meets Mountlake Terrace at 10 a.m. and Highline plays Burlington-Edison at approximately 1 p.m.

The winners of those two games play for a berth into the state final four in Yakima immediately thereafter.

All three of Saturday’s games are loser-out.