One East County Little League teams is headed to state while another earned a trip to the west regional as we review Friday’s tournament action.
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RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Montesano’s Max Lalka (left) celebrates with teammate Raider Warne after the two came in to score during an 8-1 win over Larch Mountain in the 9-11 Division District 3 championship game on Friday in Montesano.
9-11 Division District 3 Tournament in Montesano
Montesano 8, Larch Mountain 1
Bolstered by an outstanding pitching performance and some clutch hitting, Montesano’s 9-11 Division all-star team defeated Larch Mountain 8-1 to win the District 3 championship on Friday in Montesano.
Facing a winner-take-all title game one day after losing to Larch Mountain, Monte righted the ship to score eight runs on 13 hits while starting pitcher Ryker Chatham and reliever Micah Eaton combined to allow one run on just four hits to earn the championship.
“It feels wonderful,” Chatham said of the win. “We lost last year to this exact same team. … It’s unfortunate for them. We know how it feels and they know how it feels.”
Coming off a shaky loss filled with base-running mistakes and void of timely hits, Montesano trailed 1-0 after Chatham allowed an unearned run in the top of the first.
But Monte’s bats quickly erased the deficit in the bottom of the first, scoring a pair of runs on an RBI double off the bat of Chatham followed by a run-scoring sacrifice fly from Wyatt LaLonde.
Monte pulled away in the second as Larch Mountain ace Brayden Wheeler struggled to find the strike zone. With two on and one out, third baseman Shayde Pascoe drilled a double the the gap, driving in Raider Warne and Max Lalka for a 4-1 lead.
With two outs and two on in the frame, Eaton singled to drive in Trey Chapman followed by Connor Jelovich forcing in a run with a bases-loaded walk to state Monte to a 6-1 lead.
Montesano added a pair of insurance runs in the fourth when catcher Madden Maruska lined a shot to left field, driving in Chapman and Lucas Graves with a clutch two-out single.
That was more than enough run support for Chatham, who induced a fly out on a nice running catch by Graves in left to get out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth and allowed just one hit, a walk and a hit batter over his final 3 2-3 innings pitched.
Eaton entered with one on and two out in the top of the fifth and got JJ Wallis to ground out to end the frame.
Eaton worked around a one-out walk to toss a scoreless sixth, getting Carter Singleton to ground out to Pascoe at third to end the game and set off a Montesano celebration.
“Yesterday, we just kind of said, ‘Let’s flush what happened today,’” Monte head coach Travis Jelovich said. “We didn’t run the bases well, but we felt like with the bats that we have, we just needed to come out and hit and Ryker (Chatham) was going to take care of business.”
Montesano’s offense, which struggled with base-running mistakes and a lack of offense in Thursday’s loss, got five hits from the bottom of the lineup and was led by Eaton (3-3), Maruska (2-3, R, 2RBI) and Chatham (2-3, RBI), each with multi-hit games.
Chatham earned the win, allowing one unearned run on four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 4 2-3 innings pitched before being pulled in the fifth due to reaching the pitch limit.
“Going into the game, I was really just focused on hitting the strike zone and attacking the batters,” said Chatham, who commanded the corners with his off-speed pitches the entire game. “I knew their batters can hit inside and in the middle, so if I just attacked them (on the outside) I could strike them out, which I did pretty well. … I was focused on getting the next batter and I had that mindset through the whole game.”
“I don’t think he has thrown 85 pitches all year,” Coach Jelovich said of his starting pitcher. “We maxed him out and he made it really far and Micah (Eaton) came in for the third game now and shut the door. Our pitching, I think we gave up three earned runs all tournament, so hats off to all our pitchers. To have guys that can come in and throw strikes, especially at this age, is key and our pitchers were on all tournament.”
The district title was the first for a group of Little Leaguers that had a different energy entering Friday’s must-win game than the day prior.
“We mostly focused on (the prior loss) was in the past and everything is fixable,” Chatham said. “So as we came into this game, coaches said, ‘Hey, everything is in the past and today is a new day.”
“We just challenged them. We felt like we were the better team and had the better lineup and the challenge was, ‘Let’s go out there and prove it and get the bats going,’” Coach Jelovich said. “They just dialed in and carried some confidence. … Hats off to all 12, everyone contributed. … They put in the work and definitely deserve to be going to state.”
Monte will compete in the state tournament beginning Saturday at the Bombing Range Sports Complex in West Richland.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA LITTLE LEAGUE Elma Little League’s Intermediate Division team repeated as state champions with a 5-3 win over Redmond West at the state tournament on Friday in Puyallup.
Intermediate Division State Tournament in Puyallup
Elma 5, Redmond West 3
For the second consecutive season, a team representing Elma Little League has won the Intermediate state championship.
One day after being pushed to a winner-take-all championship game with a 5-3 loss to Redmond West, Elma flipped the script, winning 5-3 on Saturday to claim the state title.
Elma trailed 2-0 in the bottom of the second before scoring two runs to tie the game and following up with a run in the third to take the lead.
Elma added a a pair of runs in the fifth and held Redmond West to just one run over the final four innings to secure the state title.
Elma will compete in the Little League West Regional starting July 17 in Nogales, Arizona.
