The Ballard High School baseball team was shutout 8-0 by Skyline April 14 but played well enough that, if not for some excellent play from Skyline, the game should have been much closer.

The team hit better than the box score – zero runs, three hits – indicates, coach John Lamm said. He said the team probably had five line drive outs to the outfield where Skyline was in the right place at the right time and only struck out three times.

Lamm said Skyline played a near perfect game with excellent throws, catches and pitching.

Ballard is 3-6 in KingCo and 3-8 overall.

After beating two of the top 10 teams in the state in Newport and Redmond in the last four games, Lamm said he believes the team still has a shot at raising its record to .500 if it plays well.

"I guess right now it's kind of like a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation," he said.

In three wins this season, including against second-ranked Newport and ninth-ranked Redmond, the Beavers are averaging 5.7 runs offensively while giving up 3.7 runs.

In eight losses, the Beavers are averaging 2.9 runs to their opponents' 9.3 runs.

Lamm said his players still don't quite believe in themselves as a team, especially when they fall behind in a game, despite the impressive wins over two dominating teams.

"You tell the kids that they belong here, they belong in this division and they can compete with anybody," he said.

He said Ballard needs to use the recent wins as motivation to start acting like it expects to compete and win against the top teams in KingCo.

Ballard takes on Eastlake at 3:45 p.m. on April 16 at Eastlake High School.