One off night can cost a team everything.
After falling into the consolation bracket early, the Federal Way National’s 12-year-old group caught fire. The club bounced back to win its next two games, finding themselves playing in the semifinals and facing the team that knocked them down earlier in the tournament.
But National fell behind early and Redmond North prevailed in a 9-3 win in six innings last Friday, eliminating Federal Way from the Washington State Little League baseball state tournament. Federal Way National finished the tournament 5-2.
After the team’s first loss to Redmond North earlier in the tournament, National kicked off their tear by outscoring its next two opponents by a combined 22-6.
“A philosophy we kept all year long, including during the tournament, was T.E.A.M.,” National assistant coach Jeff Haag said. “That’s ‘Together Everyone Achieves More.’ That got us to the state tournament and it’s what got us as far as we did. Could not be prouder of these guys.”
Federal Way fell behind early as two singles from Redmond North put National in a 1-0 hole, but the team responded to its mantra immediately, answering Redmond to tie the game at 1 in the bottom half of the inning.
Redmond seized control in the second inning, plating three runs and giving North a 4-1 lead.
Haag said even though Federal Way was down early, there was no real sense of panic in the team heading into the third inning.
“We’d already lost once, so being in this position, a loss isn’t such a bad thing because the guys already experienced what it was like to lose,” Haag said. “They already had the mentality of being in the losers’ bracket and playing with that ‘there’s no tomorrow’ attitude. When we talked about it then, we knew in this game, with everything on the line, the guys were going to give 125 percent no matter what the score was.”
National was unable to make a dent in the Redmond lead. Tyler Fortney and Griffin Miller were dominant on the mound for Redmond North, with the duo combining to throw five innings of near-flawless work and allowing one run on two hits and five strikeouts.
The control from the defense allowed Redmond North to plate all five of its final runs in the top of the fourth inning. Braeden Davis led off the inning with a single, and Noah Weintraub put runners on second and third with a double and one out – both runners would score on a Federal Way error. Two singles, a double and sacrifice fly later, Redmond had all five of its final runs.
National was right back in it in the bottom half of the inning with two outs and the bases loaded. Elijah Morales scored on a wild pitch, but North escaped the potentially dangerous inning giving up the one run.
Federal Way added its final run in the sixth inning. James Turner led off with a double and Aiden Mandia produced the RBI single, but Cole Murawski came in and closed out the win for Redmond North.
“These guys always give it their all, no matter what the score or situation is,” Haag said. “They play hard and they play for each other. We’re all extremely proud of these guys with how hard they work every day.”
The team is managed by Phil Dalrymple and assisted by Derek Marino, Jeff Haag and John Turner. Federal Way National’s players are Ben Adams, Nate Cook, Luke Dalrymple, Elijah Graham, Tyler Harries, Willy Hernandez, T.J. Hurn, Cole Jackson, Aidan Mandia, Ryan Marino, Elijah Morales, James Turner and Ayden Vega.
