The Mustangs played the baseball game for Noah. They lost both. And days later, they lost their coach.

The Northport Mustangs, the team representing the town of about 300 people in north Stevens County, moved forward in the state playoffs last month by beating Riverside Christian High School on May 20 to advance to the quarterfinals of the State 1B Baseball tournament to take on Naselle High School in southwestern Washington.

The night before the game on May 24, the team ordered some pizzas, and Coach Don Baribault, who doubles as the Northport School District superintendent, took the team bus to get them, said Erik Stark, who is Northport High School’s athletic director.

“Some of the kids had never seen the ocean,” Stark said. “They swung by the beach” at Long Beach, and some of the pl

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