PORT ANGELES — Wilder Baseball, an elite Senior Babe Ruth team, just doesn’t know how to lose in its own tournament.
Wilder pounded Sequim Baseball 9-0 in the semifinals of the 13th annual Dick Brown Memorial Firecracker Classic on Sunday for a berth in the title game today.
Wilder, 3-0 in the tourney and 8-7 on the year, will try for its 12th championship in 13 years today.
Wilder has captured the crown six years in a row but will have a tough challenge from Blaze Baseball of Gig Harbor, which beat Victoria Eagles 9-5 in the semifinals Sunday.
Blaze also swept a doubleheader from Wilder earlier in the year, 6-5 and 15-8.
“Blaze is a good team,” Wilder coach Rob Merritt said.
“We will have our hands full.”
Wilder is playing well right now, getting 10 hits against Sequim while having no errors and holding Sequim to three hits in the shutout.
“We are playing better,” Merritt said.
Wilder started the season 0-5 but has now gone 8-2 since then.
In the semifinals, Wilder scored once in the third inning but blew the game open with six runs in the fourth.
Two more runs in the fifth capped the scoring.
A.J. Konopaski (2-3) of Port Angeles pitched a two-hitter through six innings, striking out 11 while walking just one.
Austin McConnell of Chimacum pitched the final inning, giving up a hit while fanning two.
Konopaski also led at the plate by going 1-for-3 with a three-run double while Derek Crain went 2-for-4 with an RBI-double, scoring two runs.
Isaac Yamamoto of Sequim went 1-for-1 with an RBI and scoring a run. He was walked twice and was hit by the pitcher to earn four passes to first base during the game.