Although the Oak Harbor Legion baseball team finished its 2015 season with two losses in the district tournament this week, coach Kyle Isaacson saw his team improve over the summer.

The Oak Harbor High School summer team fell 4-1 to Lynden Wednesday, July 15, and 3-2 to Sedro-Woolley Thursday at Burlington-Edison High School.

“I saw a lot of positives, a lot of growth in the kids,” Isaacson said in regard to the season.

“I also saw a lot of things we need to work on as a team.”

Pitching and defense were the strong points during the summer, Isaacson said, and understanding and executing “quality at bats” is an area his young team will need to improve.

The team posted a 7-9 league record and finished 15-18 for the season, but Isaacson noted that winning isn’t the primary goal during the summer.

“We got a lot of guys innings,” Isaacson said. “We were able to put them in pressure situations and see how they would react. You can’t experiment like that during the high school season.”

The trials of the summer “sets us up for success in the spring (high school season),” he said.

He liked the improvement he saw among his young players, such as Taylor Consford, who took over the team’s catching duties, and the work of Steven Richards, Chad Spradlin, Cory Roberts and Kamren Mebane.

He also saw improvement among varsity regulars Trent Benson, Tyler Snavely, Dylan Bailey and Robert Herring.

Snavely and Herring, who was “hitting the cover off the ball” as the season ended, were the team’s hitting stars.

Bailey went from playing only defense during the high school season to batting leadoff for the Legion club.

Isaacson also liked Snavely’s growth as a team leader: “I saw a fire in him.”

In the opening district game with Lynden, Oak Harbor scored first when Spradlin walked in the first inning and moved around on a pair of errors.

Lynden used a single, bunt and error to score against starter Spradlin in the third inning, then added two runs in the fourth on a hit and three walks. An unearned run in the fifth finished the scoring.

Bailey had two hits for Oak Harbor; Herring doubled and Avery Aguirre collected a single.

Sedro-Woolley scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning off Richards to break a scoreless tie Thursday.

Oak Harbor responded with two runs in sixth behind walks to Snavely and Herring and a base hit by Benson.

Sedro-Woolley scored the winning run with two outs in the seventh.

Bailey, Spradlin, Snavely, Herring and Benson each singled in the game.