AUBURN--"Mom, we won! We won!" Jordan Kelly screamed into her cell phone on Sunday, July 16, at Sunset Park.

Scant minutes earlier, she and her District 7 All-Stars had been pushed to the brink of elimination at the 2006 age 9-10 Washington State Little League Softball tournament.

Trailing, 4-1, in the top of the fifth inning against District 4 Columbia, the determined combination of South Highline American, South Highline National and Pac West All-Stars made their stand.

KJ Hogan's leadoff triple ignited the decisive scoring salvo, Dakota Bain tripled her home to draw District 7 within 4-2. One out later, Karina Vietzke doubled home the third run. After a walk to Kayla Contreras, Sabrina Champion replaced Contreras on the basepaths

Up stepped Lexis Pawlowski,. who hammered a clutch triple for a 5-4 District 7 edge.

Holding the wafer-thin margin was now the responsibility of Taylor Lee, who responded with two innings of scoreless relief, surviving a bases loaded jam in the sixth inning to keep her team in the tournament.

"I thought at first we might lose," Lee said. "But I felt the great excitement from the fans and everything else."

SHA/SHN/PW scored an early run that starting pitcher Tristen Young-Egan held until the bottom of the fourth inning when Columbia scored four runs to take command before the District 7 storied comeback.

"I got tired," Eagen-Young explained. "I just listened to my coaches and the people cheering."

Manager Tom Kelly had his finger on the pulse of this game.

"The clutch hitting in the top of the fifth inning did it," he said.

In the Saturday tournament opening game, District 7 suffered through a walk on the wild side in a 22-1 four inning setback to District 9 Sammamish.

Sammamish scored two runs by way of two walks in the first inning. The damage would have been more but for an alert and accurate throwing play from the District 7 All-Stars. After the first batter for Sammamish singled, the next batter doubled. The runner tried to score from first base, but the throw from the outfield was caught and relayed to the catcher by third baseman Kayla Kanul in time to cut down the runner.

For the Highline area athletes, this was a momentary reprieve from even more destructiveness.

Six walks and a hit batter propelled District 9 to five additional runs in the third inning before Sammamish mixed in six hits with numerous walks to run away with a 15-run fourth inning.

SHA/SHN/PW managed to score in its final at-bat in the fourth inning on three consecutive walks followed by Karina Vietzke's run-scoring ground out, unassisted to the first baseman, which plated Taylor Lee.

"Tough things happen at this level of play," observed District 7 coach Dan Lee. "The girls have only been together for a month and didn't have a district tournament. They learned a valuable lesson. We've got to keep our heads up. There will still be tomorrow."

In Vietzke's case, the satisfaction of hitting a home run and participating in the opening ceremonies gave her a truly positive charge.

"I felt great because when I hit the ball I knew she (Taylor Lee) was going to go home even though I was going to be out. When I hit it, I felt happy, During the opening ceremonies, I liked that they called my name and people cheered."

District 7 All-Stars were Katrina Vietzke, Taylor Gower, Kayla Contreres, Olivia Velasquez, Lexis Pawlowski, Sabrina Champion, Tristen Young-Egan, Madison Kelly, Jordan Kelly, Dakota Bain, Kayla Kanul, Taylor Lee and KJ Hogan.

Manager Tom Kelly's assistant coaches were Joe Bain and Dan Lee. League presidents were Todd Byquist, Mark Freeberg and Mitch Stone. DuWayne Young was the district administrator.