BAKER CITY, Ore. — For the second year in a row, Twin Cities has shown brilliance but fell in the Babe Ruth Pacific Northwest Regional championship game. After the Centralia and Chehalis 15s disposed of KWRL 5-4 in the semifinal game here on Sunday, they fell to Woodinville 18-14 in the regional championship game.
"In both years we've played from teams from the Portland and greater King County area in the regional championship game," Twin Cities assistant coach Chris Thomas said. "That's a pretty big population area for our kids to go up against but they've worked hard. Mark Roberts has been with this team for three years and Andy Forgione for the past two. So it's been a good group of players, coaches and parents."
Twin Cities had defeated KWRL by a large margin in the state championship game just a few weeks ago, but needed some seventh-inning heroics to down them in the semifinals, 5-4. Austin Emery drove in the walk-off run after KWRL scored 3 runs in the top of the seventh to tie things up.
"That's a credit to KWRL kids for continuing to get better and they were a very formidable foe for us," Thomas said.
Twin Cities built a 4-1 lead through six innings after RBIs by Tyler Pallas in the third and Christian Peters in the fourth to go along with a 2-run rally in the sixth. KWRL answered back with 3 runs in the top of the seventh, putting the pressure on the Mint and Hub City boys.
"Our pitchers did a great job [Tysen Paul, Jacob Cleary and Peters], we had a couple of errors when they scored their three runs but we were able to get out of it and only allow them to tie," Thomas said.
Twin Cities bounced back with a leadoff double by Nole Wasson — who would finished the game 2 for 3 — followed by a Christian Peter sac fly, then an Emery groundball that KWRL couldn't handle defensively.
That exciting win for Twin Cities matched them up in the championship game against Woodinville, a team that had beaten them 2-1 in pool play. The second time around it was considerably higher scoring, but Woodinville again proved to be the victor, 18-14.
"We told the kids that this had the feeling of a football game and we were going to score touchdowns and hold them to field goals," Thomas said. "It almost worked out that way."
Twin Cities pounded out 20 hits but had just two bad innings in the loss. After going up 7-0 in the top of the second, Woodinville had a 10-run rally in the bottom of the frame and the slugfest began.
"One of those things with long tournaments is pitchers and kids wear down," Thomas said. "It doesn't matter whether they've thrown a lot of pitches or not. You have the heat and them staying in a hotel for six days. Kids were just worn down on both sides."
Twin Cities cut it to 10-8 before going on a 6-run rally in the top of the fourth for a 14-10 lead. Then Woodinville struck again with an 8-run rally in the bottom of the fifth and that's how things would stay.
Jacob Cleary was 5 for 5 while Tyler Pallas, Drew Forgione, Tysen Paul and Joel Aliff each had three hits. Nole Wollan and Christian Peters had two hits apiece.
Twin Cities left 14 baserunners on, while walking seven batters, hitting four and committing four errors.
