Bellevue Little League Team Tripped in Title Game

Eastlake scored eight runs in the final two innings to beat Bellevue West 9-8 in the Little League District 9 championship for 12-and-under All-Stars on Tuesday night at Redmond's Hartman Park.

Bellevue West belted four home runs to take a 7-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning. But Eastlake, which defeated Bellevue 13-0 on Monday to force a winner-takes-all title game, hit two homers in a four-run fifth and scored four more runs in the sixth to win the double-elimination tournament. Josh Jayagaran capped the winning rally with a hard-hit infield grounder. 

"That's a great-hitting team," Bellevue manager Jeff Neely said of the district champs. "You've got to be a good-hitting team to advance, you've got to be a great-hitting team to go to state. They're going to be very successful because they can hit basically one through nine (in the lineup). A lot of guys can put the ball out of the ballpark ... stringing singles together like the Mariners just doesn't work."

Neely's team put his philosophy into practice in the first inning. Trevor Neely hit a three-run blast with two outs, and added a solo shot in the fourth. Henry Pratt followed that homer with one of his own, making the lead 5-1, and Cole Soreano hit a monster homer in the fifth to put Bellevue ahead 7-1.  

"That really kept the team going," Nealy said of the home runs. "We could have folded easily after yesterday, but to come out like we did is phenomenal."

Eastlake's rally began in the bottom of the fifth inning, with one out. Bellevue starter Zack Rossman, who had cruised through the first four innings-plus, ran into trouble in the middle of Eastlake's order. Back-to-back home runs by Elliot Carney (a two-run homer) and Mark Whitley cut the Bellevue lead in half, and Eastlake added another run to make it 7-5 heading into the sixth.

"(Rossman) hadn't started for our team basically all year," Neely said. "We knew he could pitch, he just had to hit his spots and he did for four-and-a-half innings, but then he started getting tired and (Eastlake) can hit. They put the bat on the ball and it goes."

Bellevue added a run in the top of the sixth on Colin Suter's infield single, but left the bases loaded and led just 8-5 going to the bottom of the sixth.

Eastlake's first three batters reached base, and Cole Peterson singled in two runs. A fielder's choice to tie the score set up Jayagaran's winner. 

Neely complimented his players for their effort. "We could have quit," after losing Monday, he said. "We never want to quit ever in life. To come out here and play basically five rock-solid innings and take it within three outs of going to the state tournament was incredible."