EPHRATA — Wilder Baseball is one step from going international.
The area team of players from Port Angeles and Sequim opens the Senior Babe Ruth state baseball tournament in Ephrata with two games today.
Wilder needs to finish third or better at the four-team tournament to secure a spot at the Pacific Northwest regional tournament in Calgary, Alberta, next week.
Today, Wilder faces the Columbia Basin River Bandits at 1 p.m., and the Columbia Basin River Dogs at 7 p.m.
The area team concludes the state tournament with a 10 a.m. game Wednesday against Lakeside Recovery.
Wilder faced all three teams during the regular season.
It lost to the River Dogs 4-0 at the High Desert Classic, also held in Ephrata, last month.
Wilder defeated the River Bandits, the junior team of the River Dogs, 8-5 at the same tournament, in which Wilder went 4-1-1 and placed third.
The tie came against Lakeside Recovery in a game that was called due to darkness with the score even at 6-6.
Wilder and the Issaquah-area team have played five times this summer. Along with the tie, each team has won two games.
The most recent was a 2-1 win by Wilder in extra innings at the Dick Brown Memorial Firecracker Classic in Port Angeles earlier this month.
The River Bandits, then known as the Desert Dogs, won last year’s state tournament in Port Angeles, and Lakeside Recovery took second.
As the hosts, the River Dogs had an automatic bid to the Senior Babe Ruth World Series, and therefore did not play in the state tournament.
If Wilder survives state and regionals, it will advance to the Senior Babe Ruth World Series in Klamath Falls, Ore.