Going, going and gone...
Federal Way National's 9-10 year old Little League All-Stars team is going to have to do it the hard way now, having to energize themselves to play with constant energy going through the loser bracket for a chance to represent District 10 at state coming up in mid-July -- and so far so good as they beat Soundview, 10-4, in a loser-out game Friday.

"Good job by the pitching," said National manager Kevin Fitzpatrick, talking to a huddled mass of blue and red uniformed and capped little ballplayers on the Federal Way National Complex Field No. 2 outfield grass following the win over SV. "You scored runs early and that put them on their heels. We need to keep swinging the bats well. Let's come out and play hard, with no regrets."

National was set to play Bonney Lake/Sumner in the loser bracket final Monday for the right to play last year's 9-10 district -- not to mention state champion -- Kent, in the championship. National or BL/S would need to beat the winner's bracket team, Kent, twice in order to represent District 10 at state.

National opened this double-elimination District 10 tournament by beating Chinook, but then against BL/S it was National on the losing end of an 8-7 score, dropping National into the loser's bracket.

"We get a rematch," said Fitzpatrick.

National only expended 14 pitches from their starter versus Soundview, whom Fitzpatrick said -- with some hesitation -- was the team's No. 1 thrower, Quin Hansen.

"We have three good pitchers, but I would say that Hansen is probably our ace," said Fitzpatrick.

Little League rules state that a pitcher who throws up to 20 pitches does not need to sit out a game, so Hansen will be able to pitch should the situation arise. And, actually, Fitzpatrick used five pitchers versus Soundview and most pitched no more than 20 pitches in an inning so the full complement of throwers is available for Fitzpatrick's disposal the rest of the way, which is necessary with a power like Kent still to play, twice, to win districts.

"That's what we wanted to do," said Fitzpatrick, speaking of his pitching cast of Hansen leading off, then Tate Wollat in the third, fourth, innings pitching and then Tommy Davis and Tyler Houston in the fifth and Brandon Niksich closing the sixth. "We wanted to play ahead."

Playing ahead allows a team some room for taking out a top pitcher like Fitzpatrick did Hansen early after National led, 8-0, following the bottom half of the second inning.

"You have to have pitching left for the weekend (loser's bracket final and two title games)," said Fitzpatrick. "The fact we got runs early gave us flexibility with our pitching."

What's another good reason to play ahead?

"If playing from behind, the kids are pressed," said Fitzpatrick.

In this loser bracket semifinal versus Soundview, National took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning versus Soundview, scratching out a run on a nice hustle play from Davis, beating the throw to first base, barely. The infield single was off Davis' wicked line drive shot, going down the third base line but stopped by Soundview third baseman Daryl Worcester, who hit the dirt diving and came up throwing a strike to first just a tad late.

That early defense could have set the tone for a defensive battle, but no. National's next batter, Mason Pireo, would not allow the SV defense even to get to the ball, blooping the Rawlings into shallow centerfield and around came Davis to score.

The floodgates opened, wide, after that as, still in the second inning, seven more National runs crossed the plate. The dam began to give starting with a walk to Michael Fitzpatrick that chased Andrew Yi, the Soundview starter who pitched his 35th pitch there and that was all allowed if Yi would be able to pitch with just one game's rest.

So, the next Soundview pitcher entered, and, surely Soundview manager Greg Saner did not want to have to have taken out his team's ace but being in the loser's bracket makes a team do things they do not want to do. As Fitzpatrick said above, you have to have pitching for the weekend final games. So Austin Stafford, up next for National in the second inning, swung at a pitch and didn't get much of it, chopping the ball just off the plate. But the speedy National leadoff beat the throw to first base in a close play. That infield hit loaded the bases for Hansen and he smashed the ball over the third baseman and toward the leftfield corner with the Soundview third baseman desperately moving for it.

"Our outfielder (Gannon Ginnis) made a full-out stretch for the ball, but the ball was hit in a perfect spot down the third base line and rolled all the way to the fence," said Saner.

Three runs scored -- Davis, Pireo and Fitzpatrick -- and Hansen stood on third base with a triple that made it 4-0, National.

Wollat then battled back from a one ball, two strike count to draw a walk before Houston hit the ball, hard, going through the second baseman's legs into center field, scoring Hansen easily to make it 5-0.

Continuing what would be this game-breaking inning for National -- eight runs on five hits -- was the ball getting past home plate on a couple pitches, wild pitches, passed balls, and Wollat and Houston scored to make it 7-0.

National's catcher, Conner Keene, who, incidentally, caught for National with all five pitchers -- with no passed balls to speak of -- came up next and walked. Kyle Russell singled to right field and Keene went to third base before scoring on a passed ball to make it 8-0.

The damage was done and Hansen didn't come out to the mound to pitch the third.

"Federal Way started off ready to go and it took us a few innings to get going," said Saner.

Soundview got going for three runs in the top of the third inning, making it 8-3, as Worchester and Collin Kieberger, who made a nice catch in right field in the fourth, did most of the damage. But that would be just about all of SV's damage while National piled on a couple more strikes to the meter, one in the bottom of the third on Ben Ray's walk and Wollat's RBI triple that made it 9-3. And the final run of National destruction came in the bottom of four as Keene opened the inning with a walk.

Davis then showed good bat control, fouling off six pitches from SV's Andrew Mertz, who threw well in relief for his team between Yi's pitching before leaving for pitch count reasons so he could be available for the game after the loser's bracket final, if SV would have made it that far. Davis drew a walk as Mertz resigned from that battle, just throwing a ball hitting dirt before the plate, and, then, Pireo ended the game where he started off, with an RBI single, scoring Keene to make it 10-3.

Soundview's last run came in the top of the sixth. Ginnis drew a walk, went to second base on one of the very few passed balls by Keene. Yi capped off Soundview's final offense of baseball this season with a RBI single that made it 10-4 before Niksich got the next batter to fly to center field. And Austin Stafford, who made two or three nice catches in this game up to that point, bottled the victory for his club running in shallow to nab the blooper before it hit the ground.

"Their defense was there for them the whole game," said Saner. "We tried to make a good run of it at the end of the game. It was a good run, we went 2-2, the kids played good."