By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

After surviving a grueling 12-11 win the night before in the first championship, West Seattle thrived in the if-necessary Little League All Stars District 7 Intermediate Tournament championship game, beating South Highline Naitonal, 14-1, at Pac West Fields Tuesday.

State is next for West Seattle, starting July 5 at District 1 in Snohomish.

"Unexpected" was the word West Seattle manager Dave Douglas said after beating National by such a lopsided score.

These two teams played close games the last four meetings, including the regular season. West Seattle won by one or two runs or West Seattle lost by the same close scores.

So this turnout of such a big game, for all the marbles, was a surprise to Douglas.

"We've always battled them close every game," he said. "But when a team gets going the wrong way, a lot of things can go wrong."

And, in this game, things did start out all right as far as runs go, scoring a run in the top of the second. However, after that bit of noise off a double and sacrifice came a couple errors by the infield for National that set the stage for the floodgates to open for West Seattle.

"Their mistakes by their shortstop helped us to get going," said Kelvin Wallace, who, first, watched teammates Eli Dever and Noah Oeling connect for a run that tied the score, 1-1, on a hit-by-pitch for Dever and an RBI off a shortstop infield error for Oeling, the next batter up in the bottom of the second inning for West Seattle.

"That's all it takes," said Douglas. "National'sshortstop made two great plays in the first inning then had trouble in the second."

And, for Wallace, he admitted he was not having a great All Stars tournament up to this point, having gone 1-for-5 in the last two games they played against National on Saturday and Monday.
And Wallace changed all that as he broke out of his little slump, swinging the bat ferociously, taking the ball deep to center field and over the center fielder's head, straightaway, the ball rolling to the fence.

"My hit ended up being the game-winning RBI so that got me out of my slump," said Wallace.

And Joe Pare, who manager Douglas mentioned pitched fantastic Monday in the 12-11 comeback win to force this game to see who goes to Intermediate state representing District 7, spoke as well.

"And then we kept going from there," he said.
And, going and going and going....

Wallace's blast brought in Dever and Oeling, giving West Seattle a 3-1 lead. Then Hunter Hammington's RBI sacrifice made it 4-1. Nathan Pelley singled before Frost walked and a balk brought in another run. And then Pare hit a shot to left field that brought in two more runs for a 7-1 West Seattle lead.

So, seven runs on four hits for West Seattle in the bottom of the second inning.

Then, in the bottom of the third inning, West Seattle broke it all the way open with a lot more runs, with Douglas drawing a walk in a mighty big two-out rally, it would turn out. Then, it was Wallace with an RBI single that made it an 8-0 score. And Pelley collected an RBI single, hitting the ball to shallow center field for a 9-8 score, and, Chris Frost singled. Henry Ruf singled in a run to make it 10-0. And Pare upped his good night hitting with another RBI to his total and it was 11-0. Dever's hit to right-center field scored another run and a couple more crossed and it was 14-1.

West Seattle's pitcher, Henry Ruf, all the while that his team was ripping out hit after hit after hit in this game was pitching superb on the hill.

"Henry pitched fantastic tonight and Joe last night," said Manager Douglas. "Henry threw a complete game and only 70 pitches. He kept them off balance, and Joe did, too."

And now it's All Stars time and players like Nathan Villegas are excited about it for obvious reasons.
"This is my first All Stars," said Villegas. "I've never gone to state. It should be a great experience."

Manager Douglas knows about state, having coached last year's 10-11s team and he said that there is an expecation there of not really knowing what to expect.

"I don't even know about that," he said. "It depends. Some districts have strong teams and some don't."