ANACORTES — The Buccaneers baseball team made it to the final 16, but that’s where it stopped.

On Saturday in a loser-out state playoff game against the Sehome Mariners the Bucs ended their season with a 10-5 loss.

But up until the sixth inning the game could have gone either way, as both teams traded leads and ties.

The Bucs bats started off hot and claimed an early lead.

In the top of the first inning Kingston plated two runs off a Tyler Sullivan two RBI single.

Unfortunately for the Bucs its early lead didn’t last the inning, as Sehome scored three runs in the bottom of the first.

Freshman catcher Curtis Wildung evened the score in the top of the third with a solo home run.

But once again the Mariners answered with a run in the fourth to regain the lead. And Kingston countered in the top of the fifth with a run to retie the contest.

After five innings both teams had six hits, four runs and zero errors. But then came the sixth inning — an inning that saw three Kingston errors and six Sehome runs.

“It was a really good game for five-and-a-half innings,” said head coach Scott McKay. “The next thing we knew they had a six-run inning and that was the ballgame.”

Sehome’s lead-off batter walked. The next in line hit a sacrifice bunt, but it popped up and was caught for the first out. But Kingston also made its first error on the play, as the Mariner on first base led off and was trapped between first and second base. The second out would’ve been easy if Kingston had made the play.

The throw to second baseman Taylor Zehrung was off target and the ball glanced off his glove and rolled to the fence. Instead of the out the runner was safe on second base.

Throw two more Sehome hits and two more Kingston errors into the mix and the inning ended with the Mariners up by six.

“But for a bad half inning we might have got to play for another week,” McKay said.

The Bucs did have a chance to even the game up for a third time in the top of the seventh. But the little fight they had left wasn’t enough to bounce back from being down by six.

Within four at-bats, the Bucs already had two outs against them. But then Kingston rallied for a string of three hits that plated a run. The third out came, stranding Kingston runners on second and third base.

McKay said the team was disappointed, not so much because they’d lost but because they committed three errors.

“We knew we were playing the top-ranked team in the state and for five-and-a-half innings we stuck right with them,” McKay said. “We were disappointed because we felt like we really beat ourselves instead of them beating us.”

Although it was a difficult loss, the Bucs also found a reason to be positive. Sehome advances to the quarterfinals, which means the Bucs held their own against one of the best teams in Washington.

“We definitely felt like we belonged and all but that one down inning that could have been us,” McKay said.

As a first-year team, the Bucs have reason to be proud as they advanced to the state playoffs and overcame adversity — rained out games, poor field conditions and having to practice for six weeks at Kingston Middle School — to get there.

“It was a season where the kids were extremely resilient,” McKay said. “We just had a highly successful season.” And the season isn’t over for three senior Bucs.

Third baseman Robert Jordan, first baseman Chris Jones and outfielder Theron Rahier are playing in the Olympic verses Narrows league senior all-star game May 29 at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. The game starts at 4 p.m.

“It’s an honor to get to represent the league,” McKay said.