Solid pitching and a few timely hits were all Federal Way needed as they willed their way to a berth in the state baseball tournament with a 3-2 win over Emerald Ridge on Tuesday.

“These guys did it,” Federal Way head coach Arlo Evasick said. “It’s cool for the seniors. Those guys haven’t done it in four years. They were telling me they haven’t won a playoff game in four years of high school.”

The win ends a five-year absence from the state playoffs for the Eagles. They last made the state tournament in 2011, where they lost 7-1 to Bothell in the first round.

Emerald Ridge took an early lead in the game, scoring two runs in the top half of the first inning. After the first batter of the game grounded out, Braedon Dorohoy was walked. DeShawn Johnson singled during the next at bat to put runners on at first and second.

Federal Way’s pitching coach Jason Vanskike decided to visit the mound to calm down Calvin Turchin.

“Our pitching coach does a great job of knowing the kids,” Evasick said. “He knows when to talk to them and when they’re not themselves. Same thing happened [to Turchin] last week st Kentwood; he was a little nervous. And [Vanskike] went out there and didn’t tell him to do anything different, just to tell him to enjoy it, enjoy being in a big game, settle down and execute a pitch.”

Turchin managed to get the Eagles their second out on a strikeout, but both runners were able to advance a base on a botched hit-and-run. Dominik Zombik hit a line drive out to left-center field allowing the two runners to score, but he was thrown out trying to advance to second to end the inning.

Ben Koler and Christian Jones wasted no time getting to work against Emerald Ridge’s ace, Chad Gideon.

Koler drew a walk on the first at-bat of the inning. He followed that up with a stolen base, just barely beating the tag. Jones cashed in with Koler in scoring position, delivering a double to deep left-center field to score the first run.

Gideon dashed any hopes the Eagles had of tying the game after that double by inducing a flyout and two groundouts to end the inning.

Errors caused some problems for the Eagles in the top of the second inning. Turchin began the inning with a strikeout, but the next two batters reached on errors.

With runners on second and third, Turchin picked up his second strikeout of the inning. It was not caught by the catcher, Gabe Togia, but he still managed to throw out the runner going to first.

After the second inning, Turchin took over the game. Emerald Ridge managed only two more hits – both in the fourth inning – and never walked a batter after the second batter of the game. He also finished with seven strikeouts.

“It was just staying with my rhythm,” Turchin said. “I liked the pitch-calling. I just had to focus and slow down a little bit, take a deep breath, trust my mechanics and hit my spots.”

The mound wasn’t the only place where Turchin would make an impact.

The bottom of the fourth inning started poorly for Federal Way. Eddie Peraza flew out deep once again and Togia struck out swinging.

The first sign of life came when Dawson Bakker drew a walk. Two pitches later, Mark Wright deposited the ball deep into left-center field for an RBI double to tie the game at 2-2.

Turchin stepped into the batter’s box with a runner in scoring position. It only took two pitches for him to find one he liked, and he too hit one to left-center to let Wright score the go-ahead run.

“It feels really good,” Turchin said. “Usually I get DH’d for, but today I wanted to hit. We were facing a tough pitcher and I wanted see what he was like. My bat is feeling way better this year and I just wanted to give myself a chance to win.”

The rest of the game was all Turchin as he retired the final 10 Emerald Ridge batters.

“We don’t always play with the lead, but we don’t panic and we don’t press,” Evasick said. “A guy like [Gideon], he makes a mistake and you gotta hit it. He had our number the majority of the game and it just took one or two pitches here and there for our hitters to beat him. It’s a testament to the guys staying focused when he’s beating them all night. We got to him when we needed to and it was just enough.”

Gideon finished giving up five hits, two walks and three runs. He had four strikeouts for Emerald Ridge.

Johnson and Zombik were both 2-for-3 from the plate for the Jaguars.

Jones, Togia, Wright, Turchin and Tyler Praven picked up the five hits for Federal Way.

With the win, the Eagles clinched a top-four seed from the West Central District for the state playoffs. This will be their 13th state tournament appearance in history. They won the state title in 2001.

Federal Way will face Gig Harbor at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Art Wright Field in the semifinals.

The winner of the semifinal game will play the winner of Kentwood and Puyallup in the championship game at 7 p.m. that same night. The loser will face the loser of the other semifinal game at 4 p.m.