West Seattle blasts South Highline National in final
Sat, 07/05/2008
Not a good Little League all stars game to talk about. Just ask Rick Morine, a South Highline National coach.
Anything to say about the 10-0 loss to West Seattle in the Little League All Stars District 7 10-11 year olds championship at Pacwest Fields Saturday, June 28?
"I'll let Doug do it," said Morine, who probably didn't have much to say but usually it's customary for the manager to do most of the talking.
Any good words from Doug Thurber then?
"Not a lot," said the SHN 10-11 manager, quietly picking up all the team's last things one last time in the dugout as he talked. "Congratulations to West Seattle for a game well played."
There was a reason to be a little dejected, because if SHN had won, then it would be almost state tournament time representing this district. SHN had to win one more to get to state because they were going through the loser's bracket after West Seattle knocked them into that spot the previous Wednesday in the winner's bracket final.
So it went. And it went well for West Seattle from the second inning on.
In the bottom of the second inning for West Seattle to find a well of offense, scoring three times on two hits, an infield error, a walk, and a sacrifice to lead 3-0.
Then, in the bottom of the third, more bad came for SHN in the form of a home run by West Seattle's David Meehan. The only good news is no one was on base, so it was only 4-0.
The real pain came from the hitting as well as the pitching of the West Seattle thrower, Alex Coats, who breezed through the game with an economical pitch count of 54 through four innings.
The SHN hitters just could not muster up any kind of offense -- a couple walks and a hit. Coats' pitching was either fooling SHN or they weren't as sharp as, say, the game before in the loser's bracket final where SHN beat Rainier easy, 7-1.
But this one was not the same.
"We came out flat," said Thurber. "We couldn't find our bats. We couldn't put pressure on them."
The players couldn't, well, as it sounded anyway, didn't want to by themselves say what happened in this debacle versus West Seattle. Then again, maybe Sam Maitland wanted to share the press.
Anything to say about this game, Sam?
"Hey, you want to help me say something to the paper," said Maitland, looking at some teammates walking dejectedly from the dugout to the fence outside the playing field.
"We came up with a fake bunt, and we did what we were supposed to do. We listened to the coaches," said Maitland.
"And Jacob (Thurber) came in and pitched good in the game," said Bailey Van Geystel.
Thurber did throw well. He got two quick outs on a couple fielder's choices but then a single, a single, a single, a single, a walk, and a walk brought things downhill, especially the fourth single of that sequence. It was a good pitch from Thurber.
"He threw his hardest," said Maitland.
He threw a good pitch, too, according to West Seattle's Andre Moore.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Moore smacked a low outside pitch into right field perfectly and three runs scored and it opened up the floodgates for a five-run West Seattle fourth inning leading to a 9-0 lead.
"Good pitch outside and Moore slaps it into right field," said Thurber, the manager. "You have to tip your hat to the kid for hitting it there."
In the bottom of the fifth inning, West Seattle ended the SHN hopes completely, on a single, a walk and a single
Players for South Highline National are Sam Maitland, Robert Jones, Tyler Morine, Alex Metros, Caleb Swift, Jacob Thurber, Manny Dorhofer, Jeremy Hoefer, Daniel Inman, Haiden Pierce, Bailey Van Geystel, kyle Rivera, Andrew Lenaburg,. Coaches Rick Morine and Rob Jones and manager Doug Thurber.