Greater Richland American harbored healthy hitting on Thursday, July 27, to send the Pac West All-Stars sailing out of Oak Harbor after an extended stay in the 2006 Washington State Majors (ages 11-12) Little League Baseball Tournament hosted by District 11/North Whidbey.

Pac West trailed all the way at Windjammer Park until the bottom of the sixth inning when the District 7 representative rallied to tie the score. Lucas Kenney's base hit plated the run that tied the score at 3-all going into extra innings.

The momentum for Pac West was short-lived because the District 12 Americans fired in six runs in the top of the seventh inning to take final command. Jacob Wydick's two-run homer in the home half of the inning left District 7 two runs short of the needed tallies that would have kept the Pac West season alive.

Wydick maintained his power hitting mastery with a pair of two-run homers as he and Mitchell Corsack shared the pitching load.

These fighting All-Stars ran the gauntlet through the elimination bracket to emerge as the District 7 champions and state qualifiers.

At state, the Pac West All-Stars began by blanking Sedro Wooley 6-0 ahead of a 6-1 loss to Kent. Rebounding strongly in the elimination pool of teams, Pac West eliminated Asotin County 6-3 to face Greater Richland Little League.

In four games at state, Wydick blasted four home runs while Jeffrey Kemp hit two home runs and two doubles.

"We went further than a lot of other people thought we would," concluded manager Jim Kemp. "The team did a great job getting into the state tournament and played well at state. It was a nice, little ball field. Some of our players enjoyed staying here, and others commuted. We would have liked to have done better, but I'm looking forward to taking another Pac West team to state (next year)."