By Michael Carman
Peninsula Daily News
MERIDIAN, Idaho — The Port Angeles 12U baseball team’s run at the Pacific Northwest Cal Ripken 70’ Regional ended with a heartbreaking 9-8 loss to Kennewick on Friday.
“If we would have beaten Kennewick we would have been in the semifinals,” Port Angeles coach JR Flores said. We were up 7-2 and fell apart in the fourth inning. We tried saving some pitching and when it ran out, [Kennewick] got some timely hits and we made some mistakes that turned into some big plays.”
Port Angeles did tie the game up in its final turn at-bat in the top of the sixth inning.
“They came up and moved the leadoff runner around and scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the fifth,” Flores said.
“So we had to score in the top of the sixth and Kaleb Mullen comes up with two outs and he hits a solo shot [home run] to tie it up.”
Kennewick managed to quickly put a runner on first and second, moved them over with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly to walk it off.
“We had everybody playing in because the play is at the plate and their kid did it perfectly, he put it as high and deep as he could and the runner tagged and scored.”
Port Angeles finished pool play with a 15-11 slugfest win over Bozeman, Mont.
“We already knew we were out, so we threw some guys that might not have seen some time,” Flores said.
Jordan Shumway had a pair of doubles, Austin Worthington drove in three runs and Mullen, Cole Johnson and CJ Romero all drove in a pair of runs apiece to pace the Port Angeles offense.
“This is a very strong group,” Flores said. “A very smart group. They are only 12 years old and these guys are going to ride high together for a number of years. The experience they gained is tremendous and they learned that every team is beatable. We know that down the road we can take this type of tournament.”
Flores said the team will continue its travel ball schedule next weekend playing in the Earls of Everett Tournament.
And the squad will wrap the summer slate by hosting the Dick Brown Memorial Tournament the first weekend in August.
Kennewick 9, Port Angeles 8
PA 1 1 4 1 0 1 — 8 5 1
Kenn. 1 0 1 5 1 1 — 9 12 4
LP: Gooding
Pitching
Port Angeles — Johnson 3.1IP, 7H, 7ER, 4BB, 3K; Stadmeyer 1.2IP, 2H, ER, 2BB; Gooding 0.0IP, 3H, ER.
Hitting
Port Angeles — Mullen 1-3, HR, 2R, 3RBI; Politika 2-3, 2B, R; Flores 1-3, SB, RBI; Gooding 0-1, 2BB, R, RBI.
Port Angeles 15, Bozeman 11
Boze. 0 0 4 2 2 3 — 11 8 10
PA 1 1 2 4 7 X— 15 9 1
Pitching
Port Angeles — Politika 2.1IP, 3H, 3ER, BB, 2K; Shumway 0.1IP, ER, BB, K; Flores 1.1IP, H, 2ER, 3BB, 2K; Angevine IP, 2H, 2ER, BB; Stadmeyer IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB.
Hitting
Port Angeles — Shumway 2-3, 2 2B, 2R, RBI; Mullen 1-2, R, 2RBI; Romero 2-3, BB, 2B, 2R, 2RBI; Angevine 1-3, BB, R, RBI; Worthington 1-3, 2ROE, 2R, 3RBI.
