By Tim Clinton
SPORTS EDITOR

BREMERTON--PacWest found itself fighting like a fish upstream at the Big League West Regional all-star baseball tournament, but still managed to reach the semifinals before bowing out.

Southern California proved to be the biggest obstacle, beating the team by a 10-0 score in a Friday semifinal on its way to a Saturday morning championship date with Hawaii.

But PacWest survived pool play previously with a No. 5 seed despite having a 1-3 record -- with all of the losses coming against the top three pool finishers.

That put the team of 14-15 year olds playing in an age 16-18 tournament up against No. 4 seeded Arizona to open the single elimination portion of the tournament Friday morning, and PacWest prevailed in that game, 2-1.

That sent PacWest on to the semifinal meeting with Southern California.

PacWest had a rocky beginning to the tournament played entirely at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton.

It took an 8-1 loss to No. 2 pool finisher Hawaii in its opener Monday afternoon, then fell to No. 3 pool finisher Northern California the next morning by a 7-3 score.

No. 1 pool finisher Southern California then shut down PacWest, 10-0, Wednesday morning.

PacWest played a 12 p.m. game on Thursday and rebounded from the earlier losses to defeat the No. 6 Nevada state champions in a close 6-5 battle.

For coaches Jon Moormeier, Jim Hovland and Luke Hagler and for players Ryan Moormeier, Nicholas Hovland, Christian Hagler, David Perkins and Chris Coyle this was the third time that they have been able to go to regional tournaments.

The rest of the roster was: Finn Fosberg, Josh Enciso, Tyler Terlouw, Hayden Wood, Casey Hillyard, Jacob Whitman, Chase Bowen, Larry Siler, Ethan Chabot and Austin Fujita.

The team played at the Senior level during regular season and opted to move up to Big League for All Stars, winning the recent Washington state tournament to qualify for regional action.