District 9 Little League all star tournaments came to an end this week, with one area team advancing on to state.
The Eastlake 10- and 11-year-old all star baseball team clinched a state berth Sunday, defeating Mercer Island, 5-3, for the District 9 championship.
Lucas Thrun led Eastlake to the victory, striking out seven en route to the win. Joe Longcore had a double and three RBI. Eastlake defeated Mercer Island 11-2 July 10 in the semifinals. The team also earned wins over Snoqualmie Valley North, Sammamish National and Redmond West.
Eastlake opens the state tournament at 5 p.m. tomorrow, July 19 at Auburn’s Sunset Park against Spokane Southwest. Go to www.littleleaguewa.org for more information and updated brackets.
9- and 10-year-old baseball: Eastlake narrowly missed moving into the championship round, losing 8-7 to Kirkland American in Sunday’s semifinals. Zakkary Weber had a home run and two RBI for Eastlake. Eastlake knocked Issaquah off Saturday in the quarterfinals, 8-6. Connor McCabe earned the win for Eastlake, while Ben Davidson went 2-for-3 with a home run and John Ostrander was 3-for-4 with a double. Issaquah was led by Colton Mahovlich, who went 3-for-4 and Jack Dellinger, who was 2-for-3. Mercer Island won the 9- and 10-year-old baseball division Monday, defeating Kirkland American, 11-10.
11- and 12-year-old baseball: Issaquah finished second in the Division 9 Major division on Sunday, falling 9-4 to Redmond North. Derek Champman was 2-for-3 with a home run in defeat. Issaquah lost 16-15 to Redmond North in the quarterfinals, but earned a rematch after defeating Redmond West, 18-8, in a loser-out semifinal game. Jack Gellatly was 3-for-5 with a home run, triple, double and five RBI. Mitchell Morimoto was 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored.
10- and 11-year-old softball: Eastlake finished in second place, falling 7-3 to the Bellevue Thunderbirds. Lynlee Pollis led Eastlake, going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, and Isabelle Tihista was 2-for-3. Eastlake battled through the losers’ bracket beating Fall City and Kirkland National to get the championship game.
