The Pac West Cardinals of Burien lost twice during the regular season to Rainier, but not a third time. It was that third time that was the most important -- when it counted -- in a 17-11 win by the District 10 Little League Junior All Star Tournament of Champions title game at Rainier Valley Playfield in Seattle June 15.

"Rainer is a good ballclub, but our guys came to play today and they put up a lot of runs," said John Howard, the coach of PacWest who also has coached Junior Football League for many seasons along with coaches George Jackson and Milt Chapman. For many years, those three have made the seniors (14-15 year olds) division JFL team the best around. Then that talent goes on to help out high schools in the area, like Highline, Kennedy, etc.

But that's another story. Actually, the JFL is an August story annually in the paper. And, there is, come to think of it, some relevance to "it" in this one.

"I'm done, " said Howard, who has volunteered time coaching Little League teams for more than a few years now, including helping his son, Brandon, get to state two, three years ago in seniors in all-stars, which comes up next.

Done? What about the JFL and football?

"Oh, I still got football," said Howard, smiling.

And, I'm sure football is glad they still have Howard.

Baseball still has Howard and he is a great motivator.

"We know what he wants of us out there," said Thomas Farrell, who pitched decent in this game against a Renton team that must have averaged 15 runs per game during the season. They really could hit the ball. But so did the Cardinals, outhitting Rainier, 13-9.

"He sometimes gets mad at us but it is always to make us become better players," said Jeff Kemp.

Rainier was good. They went through their season with one loss while the PW team lost four times to go with 18 wins.

The games were close, 5-1 and 4-2, but they were losses.

This would be different. The score would be 2-0 Cardinals after the first half of the first, but Rainier showed its ability to come back in the home half of the inning and tie it 2-2, on a couple hits, too.

The game was tied until the third inning when Jacob Wydick flung his bat into a pitch -- with Farrell and Vy Nguyen walking ahead of him belting it over the right fielder's head. Wydick's three-RBI blast made it 5-2.

'That was a big hit,' said Ben Antush, who played catcher this season for the Cardinals.

"Jacob's hit got us going,' said Farrell.

What really looked like it got the Cardinals going was not just the hit, either. It was the smallest player on the field by far, maybe 5-0 tall Nguyen. He was up to bat to start and he showed a good eye to the pitcher of Rainier's pinpoint pitches that were just outside the strike zone. When it got to a full count, the Rainier fans could be heard saying, "He's not going to swing. He hasn't swung at a pitch the whole tournament."

And Nguyen proved them correct, but the full count pitch was a ball -- ball four.

"Oh, Vy (pronounced 'vee)," said Howard, pursing a big smile. "I would take 13 of him on one team. That kid has great heart. He has a very good eye for the ball. Vy was great. They (the players) call him 'Vychiro.'"

And Vy's walk to start that inning led to the eventual Wydick big hit that really was a momentum blast that loosened up this Cardinals team as they also were playing flawless defense on the field. Also, after Wydick's blast to note, that big triple was enough to have the Rainier coach pull his starting pitcher.

The next innings Rainier "only" scored three, while the Cardinals actually extended the lead to a 10-run game with their at-bats through the third, fourth and fifth innings. The Cardinals' lead ballooned to 17-5 going into the top of the fifth for Rainier, but Rainier scored five runs to make the Cardinals not able to win by the 10-run rule. So after the Cardinals didn't score and the Rainier ballplayers were up again. They scored more runs and were able to make it close in the end.

But this team of all stars that Howard has now is one that just makes him lick his chops. Six players from this team will play on the all-star Juniors team that starts play Saturday at PacWest Fields. Different teams from the season get their top players plucked from it for the all stars honor. And, if they win in the upcoming district 7 tournament, then it will be time for them to represent District 7 at state. Win that and they go on to regionals. Talking about going that far is premature, and still a long ways to go to get through state and regionals. Let's face it. Maybe the Cardinals won the TOC title but the all-star title has been all Rainier five straight years in the Juniors division.

But, if you talk to Howard, maybe this team has that kind of 'trip' in store for them and can trip up Rainier in the process.

"It's our year," said Howard. "Wait until you see our all stars team. We got eight pitchers."

The waiting will end soon enough, and, if anyone, can take Rainier off the throne, Howard can.

Cardinals players are: Justin Andes, Jeff Kemp, Jacob Wydick, Thomas Farrell, Ben Antush, Cole Porter, Travis Lair, Cody Taylor, Vy Nguyen, Shawn McClain and Jacob Ebby.