The competitors may have been smaller, but the contest was epic on Thursday. With both teams facing elimination from the Washington State 8-10 Little League Tournament, Pacwest and Sound View battled toe-to-toe for 13 innings and after five hours of baseball, Pacwest outlasted Sound View 17-14.

After two innings, it looked as though the game would be over quickly with Sound View stringing together four hits to put up six runs in the second to lead 6-1. However, Pacwest began what would become the trend in the contest and matched the effort to put up six runs in the third.

Tied 10-10 after six innings, both teams added a run in the eighth inning and tacked on one more apiece in the 12th inning. Each team used seven pitchers as they tried to match each other’s offensive bursts as the game continued on into the night. With both teams thin on pitching, Sound View sent out reserve Riley Dinicola to start the 13th inning. Dinicola, who had struck out the last two batters in the 12th, ran out of gas and struggled to find the strike zone. After Dinicola walked the first two batters on eight pitches and Sound View brought in another reserve in Jax Cuthbert.

Pacwest’s Devin Tep made the most of his eighth plate appearance, driving Cuthbert’s third pitch into left field and scoring Jayden Lake from second. The floodgates would open for Pacwest from there, scoring three more runs on wild pitches and Tep coming home on a fielder’s choice. Cuthbert would strike out two batters and the half inning would end with Sound View catching a runner trying to steal home, but the damage was too much for Sound View to overcome.

Sound View was able to score two runs on three hits in the bottom of the 13th, but it would be Pacwest celebrating like they had just taken the championship when the marathon was over.

With the game going deep into the night, officials were forced to postpone the game between West Valley and North Bothell until tonight at 5 p.m. Pacwest will be back on the field right after to face Larch Mountain in a loser-out contest.

Trailing 10-9 going into the top of the sixth inning, Pacwest took advantage of errors to tie the game. Hawke Hansen reached on an error and worked his way to third base on two straight wild pitches before scoring on a ground out by Raiden Hang.

In the eighth, Hansen led off the inning with a single to right field. Quincy Eastman walked and Ronan Rasmussen singled to load the bases for Pacwest. With one out, Lake laid down a squeeze bunt and Hansen sped in from third to give Pacwest the lead. Pacwest would try to bunt again moments later, but Sound View catcher Jack Luxenberg was able to field the ball and tag Eastman out, then keep his wits and tag Rasmussen as he tried to steal before the pitcher got back to the mound.

Sound View would match the run in the bottom half of the inning with Reece Colbert singling and coming home on two wild pitches. Colbert slide just under the tag of Tep to add on the equalizer.

It would be Hansen scoring again in the 12th to put Pacwest ahead by a narrow margin. Hansen reached on a fielder’s choice and was able to slide home on a wild pitch. Yet, once again, Sound View was able to pull back even. Sound View’s Logan Judish drew a leadoff walk and moved around to third on a wild pitch before scoring when the first baseman couldn’t stretch to catch the throw on a ground out that would have ended the inning. Sound View had a man on second and third, but ended the inning on a grounder back to the pitcher to send the game to the 13th inning.