WHIDBEY
SPORTS Wednesday, July 9, 2014 • Whidbey News-Times
GAME OF THE WEEK
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NWLL 10/11 baseball team hosts Sedro-Woolley at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 12, in the district tournament.
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3 Little League teams set for state tournaments By JIM WALLER Sports editor
The North Whidbey Little League 9/10 baseball team squeaked out a 10-9 win over Central Whidbey to capture the District 11 championship in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, July 3, and earn a trip to the state tournament. The Central/South Whidbey 9/10 softball team already qualified for state, and another Whidbey team is assured of a state berth. In junior (13/14) softball, Central and North Whidbey are battling in a best-of-three series at Coupeville High School to determine the district champion. Central Whidbey won the opener 14-2 Monday. The teams squared off again Tuesday, but results were not available at press time. If necessary, the third game will be 6 p.m. Wednesday. One other North Whidbey team still has a chance to grab a state slot. The 10/11 all-star team hosts Sedro-Woolley in a best-of-three series beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 12, at Windjammer Park. The second game is 1 p.m. Sunday, and the third game, if necessary, will be 6 p.m. Monday. The 9/10 state baseball tournament is at Badger Mountain Park in Richland. North Whidbey plays the District 1 champ at 1 p.m. Saturday. The 9/10 state softball tournament also opens Saturday when Central/South Whidbey plays Woodinville at 3 p.m. in Asotin. The junior softball state playoffs begin Saturday as well when the Whidbey winner meets Ridgefield at 4 p.m. at Meridian Park in Shoreline. If North Whidbey takes the 10/11 district baseball crown, it will head to Chehalis to meet the District 1 titlist at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, July 19. Three local teams just missed state trips, losing in the district finals Thursday, July 3. Central Whidbey was knocked out by North Whidbey in the 9/10 baseball finals, North Whidbey lost 3-1 to Burlington in 11/12 baseball and the Whidbey Junior baseball team fell 10-0
to Sedro-Woolley in its championship game. In non-Little League action, the Oak Harbor Legion baseball team finished second in the Port Angeles Tournament last weekend.
Doughty again singled in Johnson, who scored three runs, in the seventh for the final run. Anthony Stewart, Robert Herring and Quentin Tungate added singles; Trent Benson earned the win. Oak Harbor scored six runs in the fifth inning to break open the Wilder Junior game. Three walks, three hit batters and singles by Johnson and Tyler Snavely fueled the inning. Snavely picked up the pitching win. Benson had a single and double; Johnson added two singles. Tungate, Snavely and Dylan Bailey recorded the other Oak Harbor hits.
9/10 Baseball North Whidbey’s whiteknuckle ride to the title in Sedro-Woolley finished with a fourth-straight one-run win and second win over Central Whidbey by the identical score of 10-9. North Whidbey built leads of 8-2 and 10-6 and then hung on. With one out in the sixth, Central Whidbey loaded the bases with the help of base hits by Drake Borden and Luke Vrable and pushed across three runs. Jordan Ronning, who faced a similar situation in the first game with Central Whidbey, took over on the mound for North Whidbey and recorded the final two outs to lock up the championship. Cody Byars led the North Whidbey offense with two hits and two walks. Head coach Mark Tanner is assisted by Mike Benjamin and Casey Richardson.
11/12 Baseball North Whidbey did something no one else in the tournament could ---- gave Burlington a scare. Burlington entered the title game after winning its first three games by an average score of 19-0. North Whidbey pitcher Noah Miller held highscoring Burlington scoreless through the first three innings, striking out six. Burlington finally touched Miller in the fourth inning, and Logan Gonzales took over on the mound with the bases loaded and one out. Gonzales finished the game and recorded two strike outs. Neither team generated much offense and most of the highlights came from the defensive side. North Whidbey’s Nick Krantz made a grab of a pop fly along the fence, George Dailey completed several nice plays at shortstop and Andrew Dixon snared a line drive at first base.
Photo by Jim Waller/Whidbey News-Times
Central Whidbey’s Hope Lodell jumps out of the way of an inside pitch in her team’s 14-2 win over North Whidbey in the district 13/14 softball tournament Monday. North Whidbey finished with only two hits, singles by Aiden McCarthy and Austin Boesch. The North Whidbey coaches are Joe Buenaventura, Todd Krantz and Jerry Newton.
13/14 Softball Central Whidbey built a 4-0 lead heading into the fourth inning and then erupted for eight runs to cement the win. The big inning started with four consecutive hits, singles by Hope Lodell, Lauren Rose, Katrina McGranahan and Sarah Wright. After an error and an out, a double by Veronica Crownover and a single by Robin Cedillo continued the rally. Rose added another hit, a double, to collect the seventh hit in the inning. North Whidbey scored both its runs in the fifth inning. Walks to Sam Payne, Brooke Wilson and Yesenia Keiser loaded the bases, then Megan Flood singled in two runs. The fifth inning was the only hiccup for Central Whidbey pitcher Bella Northup. She pitched a two-
hitter with seven strikeouts and four walks. Central Whidbey scored once in the first. With two outs, McGranahan doubled and scored on an error. In the third, Central Whidbey added three runs. The big blast was a two-run triple by Wright. In the fifth, Crownover doubled and Emily Licence singled to help produce two runs. McGranahan finished 3-for-3 with a double, walk and three runs. Wright was also 3-for-3, ripping two triples and scoring two runs. Crownover slugged a pair of doubles and scored two runs. Rose was 2-for-3 with a double, walk and two runs. Lodell, Tamika Nastali, Cedillo and Licence all added singles. Lyndsay Duchnowski and Flood collected North Whidbey’s only hits.
Legion Baseball Playing in its third tournament in consecutive weekends, the Oak Harbor Legion baseball team continued its success in the special events. The Wildcats, a junior
Legion team, lost to Wilder of Port Angeles’ senior team 7-2 in the championship game of the Dick Brown Memorial Firecracker Tournament in Port Angeles Sunday, July 6. The second-place finish was another strong tournament performance for Oak Harbor, which finished second and first in the previous two tournaments. Oak Harbor opened the Port Angeles tournament with a 5-1 win over Klahowya of Silverdale Saturday, then topped Wilder’s junior team 10-4 later that day. Sunday, the Wildcats defeated Sandberg of Olympia 9-4 and then lost to Wilder Senior 10-2 in pool play. Though Oak Harbor dropped that final pool game, it had the second-best record and earned a spot in the finals and another crack at Wilder Senior. In the win over Klahowya, Clay Doughty singled in Kevyn Johnson, who had also singled, for the first run in the first inning. Oak Harbor added three runs in the fifth thanks to three hit batters, a walk and an error.
Oak Harbor scored a run in the first inning and six in the second to jump on Sandberg early. The six-run second started with consecutive singles by Danny Wolfe, Tungate and Snavely. After a walk and an error, base hits by Johnson and Benson finished the big inning. Oak Harbor plated two more runs in the fifth behind hits by Johnson and Stewart. Starter Wolfe earned the win. Johnson had two hits and scored three runs; Stewart, Benson, Wolfe, Tungate and Snavely all singled. In the first game with Wilder Senior, Oak Harbor trimmed the score to 5-2 with a pair of runs in the third when Bailey, who finished with three walks, scored on a balk and Johnson scored on a wild pitch. Wolfe had two hits; and Stewart, Doughty and Johnson had one each. Wilder Senior scooted to another early lead in the championship game, scoring four runs in the first inning and two more in the third. Oak Harbor scored its runs in the sixth. Consecutive doubles by Doughty and Wolfe produced one run, then singles by Benson and Tungate pushed in the other. Stewart doubled and Herring singled for the only other Wildcat hits. Oak Harbor (6-9, 18-13) returns to league play when it hosts Ferndale (14-4) at 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 9.