The North Olympic 16U softball team from Port Angeles defeated Hoquiam to win the state championship while the 11U Cal Ripken team advanced during Saturday action at various Babe Ruth state tournaments.
In softball action, the North Olympic 16U team concluded a barn-burner of a three-game set with Hoquiam with a 5-4 victory in extra innings to capture the state championship at Forks on Saturday.
Ashley Reid ripped out a hit to drive in Sarah Steinman for the winning run.
Port Angeles won the final two games under do-or-die pressure to punch its ticket to the regional championships.
Hoquiam won the first game 3-0 and was leading the second contest, an elimination game for North Olympic, 2-0.
Both teams rally
Port Angeles rallied to tie it at 2-2, but Hoquiam later went ahead 4-2.
In the bottom of the seventh, though, North Olympic scored three runs to win 5-4 and force a winner-take-all game Saturday.
Port Angeles won that game by the identical score of 5-4, but this time it took extra innings, to win the state title.
The softball regionals, for all age groups, begin July 19 at, ironically for the 16U teams, Hoquiam.
11U Cal Ripken
Port Angeles’ 11U Cal Ripken team continued its successful run at the state championship tournament with two wins on the first day of single-elimination bracket play Saturday in Moses Lake.
North Olympic began the morning with a 12-6 win against defending state champion Ferndale, and finished the day with a 12-9 win against the previously undefeated Mount Baker club.
Against Ferndale, North Olympic jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but by the top of the fourth inning Ferndale had posted five runs.
In the bottom of the fourth, the North Olympic bats came alive with an 11-run barrage that proved to be more than enough to secure the victory.
The hitting was led by Joel Wood, Ryan Begley, Colton McGuffey and Hayden Woods, each of whom collected two hits apiece in the contest.
Bo Bradow and Gavin Guerrero added additional hits with Bradow’s being a ground-rule double that accounted for two of the team’s runs.
Wood recorded three RBIs on two doubles.
In the second game, the North Olympic squad started out strong with a three-run blast over the left-field fence by clean-up hitter McGuffey.
By the bottom of the second inning, Port Angeles had accumulated six runs.
In the top of the inning, Mount Baker cut the lead to two but Port Angeles answered with a five-run rally, and then added one more run in the fifth.
A late charge by the Mount Baker boys in the sixth fell short.
Wood and Begley led the hitting for North Olympic by going 3 for 4, while Bradow and Woods each went 1 for 4.
Hayden Gresli added a hit and a walk that resulted in two runs.
The bulk of the pitching duties, in both games, were skillfully done by Johnnie Young and McGuffey.
The 11U team has only one loss so far in the tourney, splitting games on the first day in pool play.
North Olympic opened with a 12-4 win over host Moses Lake Nationals, but lost 14-4 to a strong-hitting Bellingham team in the second game.