Drama, suspense, and spirited competition were the dynamics on Sunday, July 2.

Rex Lakey's deep fly ball to center field in the bottom of the sixth inning plated two runs to propel West Seattle to a 6-5 win in the provisional championship game of the 2006 9-10 age Washington District 7 Little League baseball All-Star tournament held at the Pac West Ball Fields in SeaTac.

Andrew Crunican's one-out single preceded a walk to McNeil Fulmore. Both runners moved up one base before Lakey drove what appeared to be a fly ball out to center field. Unable to hold onto the ball as one runner scored, the Highline center fielder alertly fired home where the catcher failed to hold the ball on the attempted tag out of the second runner.

"Oh, what a great game," said Fulmore, who scored the winning run. "I thought 'he's going to get me' and then he dropped the ball."

With the district championship banner and a trip to state at Walla Walla finally in its possession, the West Seattle team completed a plucky performance through the laborious losers bracket in the wilting heat.

"We played, lived, and believed as one straight up," an extremely pleased West Seattle manager Troy Fulmore exclaimed. "Every kid participated in today's win. We lost to them by 10 runs the first time."

Ebbing and flowing like shifting tides, this game went back and forth with numerous momentum changes.

"It was exciting," beamed West Seattle's Joey Werlech.

Leading off the top of the second inning, Scottie Graham reached base for National on an infield throwing error. Zak Fray notched an infield single that the left fielder misplayed, allowing SHN to take a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom half of the inning, Merle Rowen-Kennedy's one-out single and Owen Vickery's two-out walk set up Alex Mackenzie for a run-scoring single. Crunican's base hit scored two runs, and West Seattle led 3-1.

Back came the National All-stars with a tortuous, two-out third inning rally.

Following a ground out, walk, and fielder's choice infield out, Alex Merrell doubled. Five consecutive walks and four runs later, South Highline assumed a 5-3 margin.

West Seattle stole a lone run in its fourth inning at bat when Marley Lucas dashed home on a throw back to the Highline pitcher to make the score 5-4 and set the final scene up.

"I'm extremely proud of our kids," SHN manager Jim McLaughlin said. "They battled as hard as they could."

Downhearted by the tough loss, SHN player Fray still appreciated the total experience.

"We did good," he realized. "The feelings of having a good playing team and being selected as an All-Star are still nice to remember."

WS defeated Rainier before an 11-1 loss to the Nationals bumped it into the losers bracket. A 2-1 edging out of Southwest preceded a 16-0 shellacking of Pac West in four innings. Then came a 12-2 romp against South Highline American to gain a rematch against South Highline National, which followed up its defeat of West Seattle by defeating South Highline American 13-2.

On Saturday, West Seattle forced the provisional championship game by holding off hard-charging and previously unbeaten National 5-4.

Crafty West Seattle pitcher Lakey completely baffled the Normandy Park boys of summer for five innings of shutout ball, allowing only a second inning infield single that lined off the bat of Andrew Baca and tipped off Lakey's mitt.

Matching goose eggs with Lakey for two innings by stranding West Seattle runners on second base in each of these innings, Fray gave up a third inning lead off walk before yielding the mound to right handed relief pitcher Baca. The strategy nearly worked. Fireballing Baca immediately induced a fielder's choice ground out to keep a runner at first before striking out the next batter.

Following a walk, Rowen-Kennedy hit a slow roller that was ruled a fair ball down the third base line for an infield single. West Seattle's Left-handed hitting Geoffrey Wukelic powered a quickly slicing two-run double into left field. Owen Vickery then delivered a run-scoring single to stake West Seattle to a 3-0 lead.