Federal Way National put heart and effort into beating Chinook in the Little League Majors District 10 Fastpitch All Stars Tournament championship game, but they were beat, by one run, 3-2, to end their season at Brannon Park in Auburn Monday, June 28.

"What a game, huh," said Tom Magruder, the National manager. "Everyone deserved to win that one. We played a heck of a game. Both teams did."

The score was 3-0 Chinook entering the top of the sixth, signaling that National had but one at-bat to send this championship to the if-necessary game. And things looked like National was on its way to doing that, in the beginning and middle stages, even the final stages, of their sixth, starting off with a Tivana Tinsley hit-by-pitch leadoff at-bat.

Then, Alex Haven was hit by a pitch too. So, two runners on base, the second calmed down and comfortingly soothed by her dad, and coach, Gary, who works under manager Magruder, after 11-year old Alex took a fast pitch squarely on the lower leg. The next batter, Aleah Adams, drew a walk. Chinook did not likely want to face her, she was thrown four straight pitches out of the strike zone.

"They walked Aleah intentionally, they weren't going to let her battle, that was a smart move," said Magruder, whose player, Adams, had knocked the starting Chinook pitcher out of the game in the fourth inning by turning squarely on a pitch and sending it up the middle as the Chinook pitcher's hand got in the way. She was done, purple, swollen finger on her throwing hand. She left the game then for the hospital.

"I felt bad about that," said Adams. "She was a good pitcher."

Very good as that pitcher, Quinn Briederbach, shut out National the first three and two-thirds innings of play, going out of the game after recording two outs in the fourth, including having the ball hit luckily off her to the shortstop, who threw out Adams.

Going back to the sixth inning National rally in progress, now full swing after Sam Simonson hit the ball hard and it was an RBI single, scoring Tinsley to make it 3-1. Morgan Vance, the next batter, singled, too, scoring Haven to make it 3-2.

Then, with Adams on third base, the count was 2-2 (two balls, two strikes), with two outs now, and National's season on the line very close to ending or extending, something happened. Would it be a hit to tie the game, 3-3, or a ball four that would make the count full?

Well, the fateful pitch came and it was low and to the ground, ball three. But, more than that, Adams took off from third base on this passed ball going to the backstop. The Chinook catcher got the ball, wheeled around 180 degrees and threw to the pitcher now covering home as Adams slid into the bag...

"Out!," shouted the umpire, doing the familiar hand signal.

The ball just needed to have kicked off the wall a foot more and Adams would have definitely scored. But baseball, it is a game of bounces, good ones and, unfortunately, bad, too.

"The ball didn't bounce our way, it was a bang-bang play," said Magruder, coach of these 11 and 12 year old young ladies. "He made the call. Tough call."

Very. But the way the team played, starting off with the pitcher, Gennie Summers, was something only to be very proud of the result. This team lost 13-3 to Chinook earlier in the tournament, getting sent into the loser bracket. So this was a big change from that to only allow them three total runs and be one run away from forcing an "if-necessary" game.

"Chinook deserved it, We deserved it, it was a tough fight," said Magruder.

Tough fight all the way through starting with the way Chinook scored, getting critical production early on in the game from an unlikely batter in their order, their number eight hitter.

After National's pitcher, Summers, had taken down the Chinook side in the first inning, the Chinook bottom of the second was when the foe scored two runs on a two-RBI double from Rechelle Summers, that Buckley area team's No. 8 hitter in the line-up.

Probably not expecting that hitter to hit like that?

"I don't know," said Summers, talking through broken words and a tear-stained face. Then she added, "Yeah. I wasn't."

Besides that run production for Chinook in the second inning, and a little more -- just one run -- in the bottom of the fourth, Summers shut that good hitting Chinook team down. And that was a very experienced Chinook team, as they were the defending champ in Majors Fastpitch for all stars, having represented District 10 at state last year.

Summers just was recovering from a tough thing happening to her early in the National regular season.

"Gennie he had a rough outing (pitching) two weeks into the season and we have been waiting all season, steadily, steadily, for her to get her confidence back," said Magruder. "Gennie did a great job for us today."

This National team may get a state representative slot yet in the future. Some of the players will move on to juniors play or club fastpitch teams in the area. But the majority of this team, all but four players, is still 11 . So, this group should be right here again next year contending for the Majors all stars district 10 crown.

"Nine returners," said Magruder.

Summers is one of the ones back and she hopes next season will be just like this one, except the end result, of course.

"It was really good. I had fun playing with these girls," said Summers. "I am glad we all got to play together. I will miss it."

Hopefully Summers doesn't miss playing next year because she proved she could pitch very well against a very good hitting Chinook team.

Adams looks forward to next year, too, after this game that ended with her slide into the Chinook pitcher's glove.

"That was intense," said Adams. "We battled hard. We came back, just didn't get enough to come back. We scored more runs than last time."

Scored more runs and held Chinook to a lot less runs.

Improvement is what sports is really all about, or, at least, it should be, and, this team can't be anything but very proud of how they did in regard to that fact.

Here is one other fact about this National girls Majors fastpitch team.

"That was our first team a a Majors division ever in our league," said Magruder. "We set a goal of winning 75 percent of our games so we could keep our team together and not have to combine with another charter. "I am proud of these girls."

This team really listened to their manager, Magruder, this season and that makes sense all the more for the success this team experienced.

"I called them (my players) 'my human sponges,'" said Magruder. "They took in everything that was said to them and wanted more."

Players on National are Dani Ward, Alexis Smithwick, Hannah Davis, Aleah Adams, Tricia Hultman, Morgan Vance, Sam Simonson, Alex Haven, Madison Magruder and Tivana Tinsley.