PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles is the epicenter of Babe Ruth baseball this week as the city and Olympic Junior Babe Ruth play host to the 10-team Pacific Northwest 14U Regional Tournament.
Pool play starts at 9 a.m. today at Volunteer Field.
Four games a day are planned through Saturday in American and National Divisions.
Host Olympic has a bye today, and will play games at 5:30 p.m. from Wednesday through Saturday.
Sunday will see semifinals at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and the tournament finale coming at
4 p.m.
Admission is free to all contests.
A full concession stand will be available.
Made up predominately of Port Angeles players, Olympic also has representation from Forks (David Powers) and Sequim (Silas Thomas).
Those two are now part of a team with a championship pedigree.
The vast majority of the team’s roster won state and regional titles at the Cal Ripken level (12U) and advanced to the Cal Ripken World Series
in Florida.
The team also won the 13U state championship at home in July of 2015 before falling at regionals last year.
“Last year I felt like in my opinion, they won the state tourney again and lost their hunger a little bit at the regionals,” manager Rob Merritt said.
“I think the kids lost that eye of the tiger a little bit. And now they want to prove that it wasn’t just little league.
“They saw the other side [losing] and realized it doesn’t feel so good.”
Olympic has been practicing and playing in tournaments against players up to age 18 all summer long in preparation for the postseason.
“We just wanted the kids to see every scenario,” Merritt said.
“We’ve seen a guy throwing about 84 [mph], which is pretty fast for 14-year olds and we’ve seen kids throwing 60.”
Merritt said the team’s work ethic leads to a winning approach to the game.
“We have a little bit of an advantage,” Merritt said.
“A lot of these select teams go and play games but don’t really practice much.
“Our guys, they really have bought into the practices.
“For their age, when they show up to the practice field, they know that you can win the game right there.”
Merritt also pointed out that many on the roster are two- and three-sport athletes, not just baseball players.
That leads to what he feels is the team’s strength — its balance.
“We can hit the ball around the yard, we can play small ball, we can steal some bags and if turns into a grinder, we have pitchers that can match up and keep scores down,” Merritt said.
“It’s not the same team that hit 44 home runs when they were 12. Now they are getting to the gaps and hitting doubles and triples.”
A deep bench also should come into play during the tournament, especially on the pitchers mound.
“I think if we really needed to we could run out seven righties and four lefties,” Merritt said.
“I doubt it comes to that, especially with how careful we are to When you play six or seven games that pitching depth can go fast.”
Olympic faced one other tournament team, South Coast of Southern Oregon, at last year’s regional tournament.
Olympic won that game 3-1.
“That one could have gone either way,” Merritt said.
“They were a solid, prepared team. I expect every team we face to be similar.”
The American Division is made up of squads from Riverton, Wyoming; Helena Montana; Columbia Basin (Washington); Calgary, Alberta and Olympic.
The National Division has squads from West Linn, Ore.; South Coast, Ore.; Kennewick; Moses Lake and Lewiston, Idaho.
The champions will advance to the 14U Babe Ruth World Series in Westfield, Massachusetts on Aug. 11-18.
________
Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or at mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.