Loudly resonating long balls left the launching pad early before courageous pitching performances did the rest for the West Seattle Little League Majors All-Stars at the state baseball tournament on Sunday, July 26.

McNeil Fulmore, Marco Calderon and David Meehan each discharged solo home runs while Cody Jones, Izac Bauer and Calderon combined to hold off the opponent as District 7 West Seattle drained District 6 Salmon Creek 5-3 on a hot Sunday afternoon at Art Mikelson Field to gain a Wednesday quarterfinal berth.

"I'm glad we could win this type of game," said West Seattle manager John Mackenzie."Marcus was just lights out and the defense was tough."

Fulmore cracked the scoring column for the West Siders in the first inning when he blasted a 1-1 pitch from Salmon Creek starter Dylan Lewis over the fence in right centerfield.

"I felt relieved when he threw it right down the middle,' he stated. "It lifted everybody up."

In the West Seattle third, Calderon delivered a 230 foot homer directly over the centerfield fence for a 2-0 edge.

West Seattle added a run in the fifth inning when Meehan hammered his solo shot over the left field fence. Cameron Slader followed with a ringing double ahead of Fulmore's one-base hit. Kevin Simmons then singled home another run. An infield error rounded out the scoring for the West Seattle at bat.

Pitchers for West Seattle escaped several possible game changing situations. Starting pitcher Cody Jones mixed up his fast ball and off-speed pitches to keep Salmon Creek guessing in the process of allowing three hits in his four innings of shut out pitching before yielding the mound to the relief hurlers.

Salmon Creek's first chance to score came in the third inning when it placed runners on second and third with two outs. Jones wriggled out of the jam with a strike out.

In the fourth inning, Jones surrendered a one-out double ahead of a ground out to shortstop which failed to advance the runner. One out later, Jones induced a fielder's choice ground out to close out his gutty pitching stint.

"I focused on the catcher and blocked out everything else," explained the West Side wonder. "I think a lot of the time my defense was working well with me."

Avery Schmidt's leadoff, fifth inning homer put the Vancouver-area squad on the board and ignited a rally. Two consecutive walks and an infield single summoned Calderon to the mound to replace a struggling Bauer. Facing a 2-1 count on his first batter with no outs, Calderon bore down for a strike out. After a sacrifice fly made the score 5-2, Calderon mustered up his focus to gain another strike out and end the threat.

Crisis came to Calderon one more time in the bottom of the sixth when District 6 scored a two-out run and perched runners on second and third. In the style of the great New York Yankeees reliever Mariano Rivera, Calderon closed out his save with a called third strike on the outside corner on the next batter.

"I just had to throw strikes and focus on the game," he concluded.