NW gets one win, CW loses twice in playoffs / 10/11 Baseball

The North Whidbey Little League 10/11 baseball team won one of two games and Central Whidbey lost twice at the District 11 tournament in Sedro-Woolley last weekend.

North Whidbey opened the tournament with a 10-7 win over Anacortes Saturday and then fell 10-0 to Burlington Sunday.

Central Whidbey lost 27-1 to Burlington Friday and 18-6 to Anacortes Sunday.

North Whidbey

North Whidbey scored nine runs in the fourth and fifth innings to comeback and defeat Anacortes.

North Whidbey scored the first run of the game in the top of the second inning with the help of base hits by Cohen Popp and Aidyn McDermott.

Anacortes countered with three runs in the third to take the lead.

North Whidbey regained the advantage with four runs in the fourth. A single by McDermott sandwiched between two batters hit by a pitch (Clayton Kester and Zane Oldenstadt) loaded the bases. A base hit by Jayden Boyles and an error off the bat of Kayden Groth scored three runs, then Jackson Wesley plated the fourth with a sacrifice fly.

After Anacortes cut the lead to one, 5-4, in the bottom of the fourth, North Whidbey tacked on five more runs in the fifth to pad its lead.

Walks to McDermott, Peyton Welch and Soren Shook; a hit batter (Connor Cash); a single by Boyles; and a couple of Anacortes errors fueled the rally.

Wesley took the mound in the sixth and closed out the win with a scoreless inning for North Whidbey.

Things didn’t go as well Sunday in the 10-0 loss to Burlington.

“It was a good game through three innings, 0-0, and then the heat, injuries and errors happened on our team,” coach Jason McDermott said.

North Whidbey will face the winner of Monday’s game between Anacortes and Sedro-Woolley at 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 27.

Central Whidbey

Central Whidbey put runners on in each inning but had a tough time bringing them home in the opening loss to Burlington.

Central Whidbey’s lone run came in the third. Aiden O’Neill walked and was plated on singles by Landon Roberts and Chase Anderson.

Payton Caveness also singled for Coupeville in the game; Pullium walked; and Johnny Porter, Gabe Reed and O’Neill were all hit by a pitch.

In the Anacortes game, Central Whidbey’s offense was hot early but couldn’t keep up the pace.

Walks to Pullium, Anderson and Jordan Bradford were mixed with singles by Roberts and Porter to scored three runs in the first inning.

Anacortes responded with six runs with the help of six walks in the second.

Central Whidbey got one back in the bottom half of the inning when Caveness tripled and Roberts singled.

Anacortes scored four runs in each of the next three innings to pull away.

Central Whidbey scored single runs in the fourth and fifth innings.

In the fourth, Caveness and Roberts continued their strong games with a double and single. Porter tripled and scored in the fifth.

Seth Woolet also singled for Central Whidbey during the game.

Caveness recorded the defensive highlight with a diving catch in center field.

Central Whidbey was the only team in the tournament that wasn’t a true all-star team, fielding the same club that competed together during the regular season. The other teams combined the best players from all the teams in their respective leagues.

During the regular season, Central Whidbey went 17-1, including winning the title in the Henry Pope Memorial Tournament.

“Coaching, we made some mistakes that we will learn from and will return next year with most of the team intact as we were a very young 9-10-11 team,” coach Jon Roberts said.