It was duel of championship level caliber that decided a winners bracket victor.

Starting pitcher Trevor Morine's five innings of shutout ball highlighted South Highline National Little League's 3-2 edging out of Pac West on Wednesday, June 28, in District 7 winners bracket 9-10 age All-Star baseball. The right hander struck out seven batters before yielding the mound with two runners on base.

South Highline moved itself one win away from a state tournament berth by qualifying for the Saturday championship round game to be held on Saturday. Pac West still had an opportunity to reach the championship by way of the loser-out round of games.

"It was important for me to throw strikes with different speeds and locations," Morine said. "It was mostly fastballs and curves."

Top level pitching dominated the game for three innings as Pac West's Larry Siler matched Morine with goose eggs on the scoreboard.

While the National mound master befuddled Pac West batters, Siler faced tougher obstacles in keeping his pitching slate clean. South Highline loaded the bases in the third inning on consecutive one-out singles. Pac West dodged the bullet by way of a ground ball force out at home and a Siler strike out.

Although this threat to Pac West was extinguished, National dented the scoreboard for tally in the next inning. Infield errors plus a walk and passed ball set Joseph Allred up for his run-scoring single that gave South Highline a 1-0 lead. Allred's RBI single in the fifth capped a two-run National scoring rally. Teddy Covich and Morine struck for singles earlier in the inning while the Nationals scored their first run of the inning on a ground out. Adrian Brown had come on to relieve Siler with two men on base at the start of the fifth and pitched shut out ball following the two South Highline runs.

Pac West staged a surge in the bottom of the sixth inning beginning with a hit batter and a walk. Covich came to the hill in relief of Morine and immediately yielded a Larry Siler single to left field. Outfielder Jace Pigg threw a strike to catcher Allred to cut off one run, but Pac West later scored its duo of runs on an infield ground out intermixed with an infield throwing error before Covich finally closed the door on Pac West's manufactured rally.

Having such a tight and suspenseful game at this stage of the tournament was no surprise for South Highline National Little League manager Tim Fenster.

"We just keep going," he said. "There was good pitching. At this level, the games just get tougher."

Pac West manager Paul Kemp agreed with Fenster,

"There was excellent pitching," he stated. "Their starting pitcher had great location and varied his velocity a lot. He had great control."