The following is a recap of how the Mill Creek Little League all-star baseball teams fared in the state tournaments. For more information, visit www.millcreeklittleleague.com.
9-10 club falls in extra innings to Woodinville
Woodinville West ended Mill Creek’s season with a 7-6 extra-inning victory Tuesday at Stan Hedwall Park in Chehalis.
With the score tied at 4 in the top of the ninth, Conor Plaisance hit an RBI triple and scored on Derrick Mahlum’s hit to give the all-stars a two-run lead. In the bottom of the inning Woodinville prevailed with consecutive two-run and solo home runs.
Eastlake capitalized on a series of defensive errors to defeat the all-stars 12-5 in the first round. Plaisance and Talor Okada allowed three earned runs over five innings and each added a base hit. Mahlum and Quintin Barnard both doubled.
Mill Creek regrouped from its loss to eliminate Gig Harbor 8-0. Mahlum had six strikeouts and yielded one hit in five innings and was 2-for-3 with three runs.
Jason Todd was 3-for-3 and pitched the final inning. Plaisance was 2-for-3 with a double and didn’t give up any bases to passed balls.
11-year-olds finish second
Mill Creek overpowered its first four opponents to set up a championship showdown with a hard-hitting Kent National club July 24 at Fort Borst Park in Centralia.
Kent defeated the all-stars 7-0 and 11-0 to claim the title. Mill Creek finished the postseason 9-2.
To reach the finals, Mill Creek wiped out a two-run deficit to defeat Bainbridge Island 8-4. Cole Grant tied the game with a two-run double in the fourth and added a two-run home run in the fifth to ice the win. Andrew Graff and Andrew Dodd were both 2-for-3 and Sean Clark had four strikeouts in four innings.
Josh Lang was 3-for-3 with two doubles and collected 10 strikeouts in four innings as Mill Creek opened the tournament with a 12-1 rout of Glenwood. Eric Lawson was 3-for-4 with a double.
Lawson had two home runs and two doubles and Graff, Dodd and Clark added home runs in a 16-3 second-round win over Walla Walla.
Lang had nine strikeouts in six innings and fanned the last batter with the bases loaded as Mill Creek held on to top Richland 7-4. Justin Yamamoto was 2-for-4 with a double.
Majors regroup from loss
Pitcher Brett Kingma calmed down after a rocky start to lead Mill Creek past South Highline 6-2 in a loser-out game Tuesday at Sunset Park in Auburn.
The first two Highline batters singled and scored as Mill Creek fell in an early hole. The all-stars picked up a run in the second due to defensive miscues and Andrew Kraus crushed his third home run of the tournament to left field in the third to knot the score.
Tyler Kane and Ben Circeo beat out infield singles, and both scored on John Wilde’s bloop base hit to right. Kingma and Isaac Kim led off the sixth with back-to-back singles and both came around to score.
Kim fanned 14 batters as part of a complete-game shutout a day earlier to pace the majors to a 3-0 win over Richland. Kim and Ben Circeo both scored on wild pitches in the first inning and Wage Rogerson singled in the fifth and scored on a Kraus sacrifice fly.
The all-stars were coming off their first loss in a second-round battle with Chehalis. Kim and Kraus were left stranded at second and third in the sixth inning as Mill Creek fell 2-1.
After Chehalis took a 1-0 lead with a home run in the first, Kraus knotted the score with a solo shot in the second to center. Chehalis regained the lead in the third with a one-out grounder to first with runners at first and third. Kane had eight strikeouts, no walks and gave up six hits for Mill Creek.
Behind home runs from Kraus, Kane and Joey Eidsmoe and solid pitching from Kim, the majors clobbered Cascade 10-3 in the first round to extend their win streak to six.
Juniors split four games
The Mill Creek bats fell silent against Friday Harbor in a loser-out game July 22 at Lower Woodland. Carl Stoddard and Santiago Morales had the only two hits for the juniors in a 4-0 defeat.
After an opening-round setback, the all-stars stayed alive in the tournament with back-to-back victories.
Morales drove in three runs and Brian Wright had a pair of hits in a 5-3 win over Yakima. Stoddard’s line-drive catch at third base in the seventh inning prevented a Yakima rally.
Dash Manning pitched all seven innings of a 7-3 win over Glenwood. Wright and Gabe Rochon were both 2-for-3.
Mill Creek mustered just one hit in a 1-0 loss to Northeast Seattle in the first round. Morales allowed one unearned run in five innings.
Wright finished the tournament with a team-high .385 batting average. Rochon caught all but two innings, with no passed balls.
Shortstop Alex Gibbs second baseman Jade Braff combined for 22 assists and 16 putouts with only one error.
Seniors finish third
Mill Creek won its first two games before dropping its next two to settle for third place.
Pat Pierre allowed one earned run and hit a pair of home runs for the seniors in a 19-4 first-round rout of Columbia. The all-stars scored seven runs in the fifth to erase a two-run deficit and added 10 more in the seventh.
Mill Creek broke open a scoreless second-round contest with Northwest Seattle in the sixth with a bases-loaded wild pitch. Peter Kudla followed with an RBI single and the seniors held on for a 3-0 shutout victory.
Eventual champion Glenwood then outlasted the all-stars 16-12. Mill Creek closed the tournament with an 8-4 loss to Columbia.
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