By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

VANCOUVER--It took two tries to do it, but the District 7 Junior Little League team under the name of Pac West captured first place in the Washington state all-star baseball age 13-14 tournament Sunday.

After coming in as the undefeated winner's bracket champion with a 6-4 win over West Valley on Friday, the District 7 team was knocked off by Stilly Valley coming out of the loser's bracket by a 9-6 score Sunday morning.

But the squad of area all-stars based in Burien bounced back to beat Stilly Valley, 11-6, in the second game Sunday afternoon to win the state championship and earn a trip to the upcoming Western Regional tournament in Vancouver.

That will be a familiar place for the District 7 team as the state tournament was played at the Cascade Little League complex in Vancouver.
Western Regional action will be played under a round robin format instead of being double-elimination, meaning the times and opponents are set for the first four games.

As the Washington champions, District 7 will open against the Southern California champions at 2 p.m. Tuesday, July 29.

Next up is the Arizona champions at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 31 followed by the Nevada champions at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 1.

District 7 finishes the round robin portion of the tournament against the host team from the Vancouver area at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3.

Top teams in the pool will then advance to championship play.

The District 7/Pac West team did not play in a District 7 tournament but instead advanced directly to state play as a unit.

In other state action this past weekend, Pac West opened the age 10-11 tournament at the Stan Hedwall fields in Chehalis by taking an 11-1 loss to Bainbridge on Saturday.

PacWest returns to action with a 5 p.m. Monday loser-out game against North Bothell. The winner plays again at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.