District 3 Junior Little League champion Willapa Harbor completed a successful visit to Medical Lake with a third-place finish at the state tournament on Saturday at Medical Lake High School.
Willapa Harbor opened the tournament with a 20-1 thrashing over District 12 champion Pasco followed by a thrilling 5-4 win over D8 champ RUG.
Facing Mercer Island in the state semifinals, Harbor saw a late lead slip away in a 3-2 loss and fell to Everett 15-9 in the loser’s bracket final to place third in the state.
First Round
Willapa Harbor 20, Pasco 1
Willapa Harbor opened its state tournament by hammering Pasco pitching for 12 hits to earn a 20-1 four-inning, mercy-rule victory on Sunday, July 16.
Harbor scored five runs in the first, four in the second and capped things off with a nine-run top of the fourth.
Led by leadoff hitter Eddie Clements and clean-up batter Max Jarvis with three hits apiece, the top of the Willapa Harbor lineup were a combined 9-for-13 with nine runs scored and six RBI.
Lucas Lusk picked up the win and combined with Clements and Dylan Andrews to hold Pasco to one earned run on two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Willapa Harbor 542 9xx x – 20 12 1
Paco 100 0xx x – 1 2 5
WP: Lusk (IP, H, 2 K).
Leading hitters: WH – Clements (3-3, 2B, 4 R, 2 RBI); Jarvis (3-3, R, 2 RBI); Jerles (2-3, 3 R, RBI); Lusk (1-4, 2B, R, RBI); Nichols (1-2, 2 R); Lorton (1-3, R, RBI); Andrews (1-2, R); Wetterauer (0-2, R, 2 RBI).
Second Round
Willapa Harbor 5, RUG 4
Solid pitching and some late-inning heroics led to Willapa Harbor earning a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over District 8 champion RUG in a state winner’s bracket game on Monday, July 17.
RUG took the early lead on a three-run double in the bottom of the first.
Harbor chipped away at the lead with a run in the third and one in the fourth while RUG scored a run in the third and held a 4-3 lead heading into the top half of the seventh.
With one on and Willapa Harbor down to its last out, Max Jarvis doubled to center to score Ty Jerles with the tying run.
Jarvis later scored on a wild pitch to give Harbor a 5-4 lead.
Jarvis worked around a leadoff walk in the bottom of the seventh to secure the victory and send Harbor into the winner’s bracket semifinal.
Willapa Harbor 101 100 2 – 5 7 6
RUG 301 000 0 – 4 3 0
WP: Jarvis (2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, BB, 4 K). LP: Gilles (IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 H, BB, K).
Leading hitters: WH – Clements (2-3, 2B, R, RBI); Jarvis (1-3, 2B, R, RBI); Jerles (1-2, R); Lusk (1-3, R); Aust (1-2, R); Rumbles (1-2). RUG – Gilles (1-2, 2B, 3 RBI); Marshall (1-2, R); Muth (1-1).
Semifinals
Mercer Island 3, Willapa Harbor 2
A late rally put a dash on Willapa Harbor’s state-title hopes in a 3-2 loss to Mercer Island in the winner’s bracket semifinal on Thursday.
Down 1-0 in the top of the fifth, Harbor took the lead when two runs scored on an error.
But Harbor was unable to hold the lead in the sixth, when Mercer Island scored two runs on a two-out single.
Harbor managed just one base hit off of Mercer Island pitching.
Willapa Harbor 000 020 0 – 2 1 2
Mercer Island 010 002 x – 3 5 4
WP: Nguyen (3 IP, 2 R, 0 ER, H, 7 K). LP: Lusk (4 IP, R, ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 5 K).
Leading hitters: WH – Lusk (1-2, R). MI – Kornylo (1-3, 2 RBI); Winny (1-1, R); Hoffstetter (1-2, R); Nguyen (1-2, R).
Loser’s Bracket
Everett 15, Willapa Harbor 9
Needing a win to advance to the championship round, Willapa Harbor’s tournament came to an end in a 15-9 loss to District 1 champion Everett on Friday.
Harbor played catch up from the get go, falling behind 6-0 before scoring two runs in the bottom of the third when Eddie Clements tripled with Keeton Nichols on and two outs. Clements came home as the throw got away to complete the Little League home run and trim the deficit to 6-2.
Willapa Harbor got as close as 8-4 in the bottom of the fifth, but an Everett five-run sixth put the game out of reach.
Harbor committed six errors in the game, leading to seven of Everett’s 15 runs being of the unearned variety.
Clements capped off an impressive tournament performance with a perfect 4-for-4 day that included a double, a triple and six RBI. Clements batted .750 for the tournament (9-for-12) with three doubles, a triple, five runs scored and nine RBI.
With the loss, Willapa Harbor finished third in the state.
Mercer Island defeated Everett 9-6 on Saturday to claim the state title.
Everett 411 205 2 – 15 14 0
Willapa Harbor 002 122 2 — 9 11 6
WP: n/a. LP: Aust (3 IP, 7 R, ER, 7 H, 2 BB, K).
Leading hitters: WH – Clements (4-4, 2B, 3B, R, 6 RBI); Lusk (2-2, 2 R); Jerls (2-4); Aust (1-4); Ruddell (1-1, RBI); Rumbles (1-3, R).
