The first of Friday’s Class 2A semifinals at Bellingham’s Joe Martin Stadium will feature programs built on bloodlines.

Selah, the 11th seed which rallied past No. 3 Othello to reach the semis, meets second-seeded Tumwater in the 10 a.m. contest, with No. 13 Orting and top-seeded and defending champion Bainbridge to follow.

The CWAC district champions have five players – Easton Jones (father Shane), Jack Kennedy (Sean), Kole Martin (Kyle), Jaxon Quenzer (Eric) and Hudson Sager (Kyle) – whose fathers played for Hall of Fame Vikings coach Mike Archer, and do-it-all junior Braxton Young was in grade school when big brother Carter won state titles in his freshman and senior years.

Kennedy is a sophomore, and Jones, Martin, Quenzer and Sager are all freshmen. Fellow ninth-grader Colton Barthel starts at second base, sliding over to shortstop when Young pitches.

“Maybe we’re ahead of schedule a little bit, but our bloodlines are really deep,” said Archer who has a team in the final for the 15th time in his 30 seasons as coach, 29 of those that ended with a state tournament,

“These guys were coached when they were younger by old Viks, and those old Viks treated them like they were seniors, they didn’t let up on them,” Archer said.

The present-day squad hasn’t let up on opponents of late.

After Young and Barthel pitched the Vikings to an 8-0 win against No. 6 Columbia River, Selah (18-6) avenged three regular-season losses to the Huskies with six runs in the top of the sixth to rally for an 8-7 victory.

Christian Keller’s bases-loaded triple gave the Viks the lead, and Young retired all four batters he faced to secure the win.

“The message to them was, ‘we didn’t get here by not fighting,’ so we gotta fight and scratch one or two across and get back into the game,” Archer said. “As long as you fight, and you don’t pout for an inning or two you got a chance.”

The youngsters on the team made quick work of any learning curve.

“We had a short period of time for these guys to get their feet dirty, get them in the game and they’ve stepped up,” Young said.

The T-birds are looking for their third championship in five seasons under Lyle Overbay, who played 14 seasons in the major leagues after helping Centralia High School to the Class AA state championship as a sophomore.

Lyle’s son Alex, who completed his junior season this spring at Arizona State, was a key cog in the first two Tumwater championships, while younger brother Luke leads this year’s team, and is headed to Michigan.

The T-birds (22-4) have won 14 straight games, five of those by shutout. Tumwater has scored 10 or runs eight times this season.

No. 11 Selah vs. No. 2 Tumwater

TIME AND DAY, SITE: 10 a.m. Friday, Joe Martin Stadium in Bellingham.

OVERALL RECORD (CONFERENCE), RPI: Selah 18-8 (11-5 CWAC), 14; Tumwater 22-4 (13-2 Evergreen 2A), 4.

UP NEXT: Winner meets the winner of No. 13 Orting and No. 1 Bainbridge in the championship at 4 p.m. Saturday. The losers will meet at 10 a.m. for third and fourth place.

OF NOTE: The Vikings are back in the final four after taking fourth last year, while Tumwater has not advanced past the quarterfinals since winning back-to-back-championships in 2022-23.