WOODINVILLE — Bradley Barham absolutely flew by first base and was closing in on second by the time his game-winning blast cleared the waist-high cyclone fence in straightaway center field.
And he never stepped off the gas until it was time to stomp on home plate. It was really more of an all-out sprint than a home run trot.
Barham was in a hurry for good reason.
His solo shot with one out in the top of the sixth inning lifted the Richmond Little League all-stars to a 10-8 comeback win over the Richland Bombers Tuesday night at Northshore Complex in the semifinals of the major boys state tournament.
Richmond is scheduled to play for the state championship and a bid to regionals at 6 p.m. tonight at Northshore Complex.
“It was an amazing effort by the kids,” Richmond manager Bob Enloe said. “When we’ve had to have big hits and big plays, we’ve made them. We had little lapses today, but we fought through it.”
A four-run third inning helped Richmond stretch its lead to 7-2. Bobby LeCount led off the inning with a line drive homer to center, Alex Kuniyoshi and Tristan Reni followed with RBI singles and Ryan Merriam drew a bases loaded walk.
Richland answered with six runs in the bottom of the fourth, including a grand slam from Cody Shepard.
“We’ve been down in most of our games and have come back,” Enloe said. “That’s nothing new for us. We’ll have a little adversity and we come through.”
In what is believed to be their first trip to state in the major boys division, the Richmond all-stars have outscored their four opponents 43-20.
“All the teams here can hit,” Enloe said. “We’ve had better defense and better pitching.”
LeCount, Cole Clerget and Tyson Knowles all homered and seven others provided hits in Richmond’s 16-3 five-inning thrashing of South Everett in Monday’s quarterfinals. Richmond jumped to a 8-2 lead through two innings and piled up 19 hits.
Merriam was 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles and two RBI, Clerget was 3-for-4 with three RBI and LeCount was 2-for-2 with two walks and three RBI.
Kuniyoshi threw all five innings for Richmond, striking out nine and scattering five hits and two earned runs.
Richmond scored all of its runs during a wild fourth inning in a 9-5 win over Eastlake to open the state tournament July 19. LeCount struck out five in six innings and Clerget and Kuniyoshi both supplied two hits.
In the second round, Richmond downed Chehalis 8-4 in another back-and-forth battle July 20. Barham came on in relief with runners on second and third and no outs in the third inning and got Richmond out of the jam.
Making his first postseason appearance, Barham threw four scoreless innings and held Chehalis to three hits. He also went 3-for-3 from the plate, with a double and an RBI. LeCount was 2-for-2 with a home run and three runs and Kuniyoshi went 2-for-3.
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