Well at least one Red Sox team can win a championship.
The Boston Red Sox might not have won a World Series title since 1918, but the Oak Harbor Red Sox capped a perfect season by downing South Skagit 5-3 in the championship game of the Andy Andrade Memorial Tournament on Friday night.
“We did pretty good,” said Red Sox head coach John Encinas. “The kids were awesome.”
The Red Sox finished the season 18-0 after going through the North Whidbey Major Division Little League (ages 10-12) with a perfect 14-0 record. The team added four more victories in the Andrade tourney which matched up all the No. 1 teams from the are Little Leagues.
“I don’t know the last time a local team went undefeated through the season, our records don’t go back that far,” said Red Sox assistant David Lura. “It’s a pretty big deal.”
The Andrade Tournament is named after Andy Andrade, who was one of the biggest supporters of Little League baseball in Oak Harbor. Andrade always coached the Red Sox team in the North Whidbey Little League, and the squad is still sponsored every year by an endowment in his name. The championship game was played on a field named after Andrade at City Beach Park.
“It was quite fitting,” Lura said. “The team sponsored by Andy Andrade won the tournament named after him on Andy Andrade Field.”
This year’s tourney was comprised of the eight first-place squads from the area leagues and two at-large squads. One of the at-large teams was the Oak Harbor Mariners, whom the Red Sox downed 8-6 in the first round on June 8.
The Sox then knocked off the Anacortes team 15-5 in the next round and smoked South Skagit 11-0 to make it to the title game. South Skagit was able to reach the title game of the double-elimination tourney by downing the Mariners 3-1.
It was a big weekend for the North Whidbey Little League squads. Five of the seven teams saw action in the postseason and two of them won titles.
The Red Sox and the Mariners played in the Andrade tourney while the Rockies participated in the Erik K. Tesarik Memorial Tournament in Sedro-Woolley. The Diamondbacks knocked off the Pirates in the championship game of the 16-team single elimination tournament held for the third-fourth-fifth-place squads in Mount Vernon.
With the regular season now complete. All-Star teams were selected on Sunday. Two teams, one composed of 11 and 12 year-olds and one of 9 and 10 year-olds, were made and will begin play early next month.
The 11 and 12 year-old North Whidbey All-Stars could have a chance to play in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania if they can make it through the district and state tournaments. They begin play with the district tourney in Sedro-Woolley on July 6. The nine and 10 year-olds will begin their campaign by hosting a tournament at the City Beach Park ballfields that same weekend.
CWLL D-Backs win too
The Diamondbacks of the Central Whidbey Little League were also big winners last weekend, taking first in the Erik K. Tesarik Memorial Tournament at Sedro-Woolley’s Kiwanis Field. The Diamondbacks downed Frontier Chevrolet of the South Skagit Little League’ 6-3 in the championship game on Saturday.
The victory featured two home runs by Brian Miller and a six-inning complete game by pitcher Kyle Wilcox, who allowed just four hits on the day.
The D-backs reached the title game by winning three straight games over the course of the tourney, outscoring their opponents 16-4.
