It was a one-run ballgame early before the score got away from Pac West in an eventual 9-3 loss to Rainier in the District 7 Juniors Division All-Star Tournament championship at Rainier Playfield Thursday, July 3.

Afterward, Pac West manager John Howard explained the good things about this double-elimination tournament.

“We lost the first game of the tournament, but we showed heart and determination after that to come back and win three games,” said Howard.

Winning this championship game would have only been the first step needed by Pacwest. Because Southwest beat Pac West, 4-2, Pac West would need to win the “if necessary” game played next, having the dubious honor of going through the loser’s bracket while Rainier had won all its games and still could lose one and win the next to be crowned District 7 Juniors champs.

“After we lost the first game, 4-2, coach (Howard) reared us in gear,” said Nick Mead, who had a couple hits and an RBI in this game. In order, Pac West came through the loser’s bracket with wins over South Highline American, South Highline National and avenged their first loss to Southwest next.

Pac West scored right off the bat against Rainier, getting a single from Jacob Wydick followed by a Mead RBI single.

Rainier came right back, though, scoring a run of it’s own to tie things, 1-1, in the bottom of the first inning.

While Pac West could not keep the offense sustained, Rainier hit for five singles in the bottom of the second inning to take a 4-1 lead.

Pac West’s best run-production inning came next, but it was only two runs. Still, it showed their heart and determination to stay in this one and give themselves a fighting chance to get to the “if necessary” game that would have been played next, with the winner of that representing District 7 at state to be held in Mount Vernon starting on July 25.

So, in the top of the third, Jeff Kemp led off with a single slapped hard to third base, so hard it ricocheted off him to the shortstop who could not get the ball to first base before the speedy Kemp arrived. Kemp stole second base next, and Mead followed with a bloop line drive that dropped right in front of the Rainier shortstop crouching down unsuccessfully to get it. The next batter, Ryan Ward, rolled a two-RBI single up the middle into shallow center field to make it 4-3 Rainier.

With Ward on base ready to tie things up, the next batter swung and missed, three times, to strike out.

The District 7 administrator could be heard saying after that, sighing, “Swinging at high stuff.”

Striking out was not a prevalent theme for Pac West, they just were not able to get the ball to drop. Again, in the top of the fifth, Pac West had an opportunity to get this game into a tie. But in between Kemp’s double to left center field were a leadoff ground out and two fly outs. Both were hit well to centerfield. But both were outs.

Rainier was stymied by good Kemp pitching in the bottom of the fourth to keep this one a one-run game, 4-3 -- throwing only 13 pitches. But he was hit hard in the bottom of the fifth and it was 9-3 when that ugliness all ended.

Kemp mentioned his defense was not as good backing him as some games in that melee of hitting. The base running wasn’t perfect, either. After speedy runner Hasan Al Hasan singled in the Pacwest top of four, he had a good chance to get to second base because of his good speed -- which was shown by beating out a grounder to third base -- with the tie to the runner being the reason he could stand on first in the first place. He was not quite right with reading the sign from Howard and first base coach Rick Austin.

“I didn’t read the sign,” said Hasan. And, playing against a team like Rainier that has won a lot of the championships in Juniors the last five years -- the majority of them, you can’t make mistakes like that.

But the mistakes were well rounded. Others made them too, according to Kemp.

“Defense and hitting hurt us most,” said Kemp. “I didn’t feel I had that (defensive support). The ball was getting by the outfielders, and taking funny hops. That cost us a couple of runs. I knew I could have pitched better, too.”

Ben Antush, who injured his thumb and is the team’s usual catcher, was forced from that role, just hitting. He, like most of the rest of the offense, did not hit well.

“We could have hit better in this game,” said Antush.

Pac West actually hit well through the first three innings, but, after that, the bats fell silent. Through the first three innings, Pac West had six hits. But through the last four innings, only Kemp’s double and Hasan beating out an infield grounder were the hits.

“We just didn’t hit in this game like we did our last three games,” said Ward, with Mead, adding, “It was fun 10-running every team until Rainier.”

Besides Southwest and Rainier, this team was clobbering the competition, but in the game that mattered most things just were not on all cylinders.

“It just didn’t happen. The boys played hard all the way back to the championship,” said Austin, who coached with Howard for the regular season Pac West charter team that took the Tournament of Champions title over Rainier’s best regular season team. And, for the last 15 years, Howard and Austin have been in Little League baseball coaching and managing. The two share a Seniors championship win in 2005, from Howard’s son, Brandon, pitching an eight-inning 3-2 gem.

“I’m done,” said Howard. “No more coaching for me.”

What about football?

“Oh, yeah, I still got football,” said Howard, who has helped coach the Burien Bearcats’ oldest division Junior League Football team, along with George Jackson and Milt Chapman, to more championships than any other same-division team in the JFL the last 10 years.

“I still got that,” said Howard.

One Pac West player ran up to his coach, Howard, after the game. “How much do I have to pay you to come back next year and coach us,” said Mitchell McCartney. “Mitchell,” said Howard, loudly while playfully grabbing McCartney by the arm, smiling.

So it was a good season for the Pac West Juniors. Austin, too, had his son way back when playing out here in Little League a long time ago with Howard’s kids in “coach pitch,” will also leave this Little League coaching behind.

“I’m all done now. Fifteen years is a long time to do this,” said Austin. “My kid is out of college now. It is time for me to move on.”

Thanks for the memories. I’m sure that’s what these boys, and others playing with Howard and Austin before this, would say.

Kemp was one of the players that had a good season and tournament and Howard said what it would take to get him to come back.

“If there were more ‘Kemps,’ I would coach,” he said.

Players for the Juniors All Stars of District 7 are: Hasan Al Hasan, Justin Andes, Ben Antush, Eddie Cervantes, Thomas Farrell, Jeff Kemp, Mitchell McCartney, Nick Mead, Scotty Peterson, Cole Porter, Kendall Spiess, Ryan Ward and Jacob Wydick. The manager is John Howard and the coaches are Rick Austin and Terry Ward.

Pac West watch score get away in final