Although the Oak Harbor Babe Ruth baseball team lost a wild 17-13 game to host Sedro-Woolley in the 13-year-old district tournament Tuesday, June 27, the Wildcats qualified for the state playoffs.

With the win, Sedro-Woolley earned the No. 1 seed out of the district for state; Oak Harbor finished second.

The state tournament is July 13-16 in Ephrata. Oak Harbor coach Joe Buenaventura said, however, that his club may not attend because of other commitments.

In Tuesday’s game, Sedro-Woolley’s big inning was bigger than Oak Harbor’s big inning.

Oak Harbor scored nine runs in the third inning to take an 11-0 lead.

Down 11-1 in the fifth, Sedro-Woolley needed at least one run to stay alive and avoid the game ending on the 10-run mercy rule. The Outlaws got that run a plenty more, scoring 12 times to go ahead 13-11.

Oak Harbor picked up a run in the bottom of the fifth, then Sedro-Woolley pushed across four runs in the top of the seventh to pad its lead.

The Wildcats scored in the bottom of the first on four walks.

In the second, Oak Harbor collected its second run when Shawn Day, who doubled, scored on an error.

The nine-run third was aided by six walks, a hit batter, an error, a bases-loaded triple by John Blankman and singles by Gage McLeod and Cody Duchnowski.

Sedro-Woolley’s rally in the fifth included five hits, seven walks and three Wildcat errors. A double play by Oak Harbor ended the inning.

Oak Harbor scored single runs in the fifth and seventh. Singles by McLeod and Teak Hopkins led to the fifth-inning run, and McLeod tripled and scored in the seventh.

McLeod finished with three hits and three runs and pitched three shutout innings.

John Blankman, Duchnowski, Hopkins, Benjamin Lockwood and Day also recorded hits for the Wildcats; Blankman and Duchnowski each drove in three runs.