By Ed Shepherd

Sky Valley was Steel Lake' s first victim in the Senior All Stars Little League State Tournament.

Steel Lake erased a 1-0 deficit early on to support Travis Quackenbush's good in the end, when it mattered most, winning an extra inning game, 5-1, July 13 at Moshier Field in Burien.

"I think we have state in the bag," said Quackenbush, who started off the game allowing three straight singles, including the third hit having an RBI, before ducking trouble the rest of the game, including striking out the final two batters in the first inning.( Quackenbush s only walk, in the bottom of the fifth, led to a good recovery as he picked off the runner on first base.

"Travis pitched good", said Steel Lake manager Jeff Edd. "And no errors, that is always good."

No errors is almost right. In all the innings, only one error by either team in this crisply played game of defense and not much offense. Just one error in the game, but that was all it took to destroy one team. And fortunately for Steel Lake, it was not an error by them that cost the game.

Starting off the top of the seventh was Cambell Flewelling, getting a walk. Then a couple outs later, Ryan Rasmussen was hit by a pitch. So, two outs, two on base, and Steel Lake at this point is still down, 1-0. But that would change with the catcher's throw trying to get Rasmussen on third base leading off too far after a pitch. The ball took a bounce as the third baseman for Sky Valley did not help matters by short-arming the throw. So the ball went into left field and Rasmussen scored to make it 1-1.

Then, after new Steel Lake pitcher Brian Thomason came in and shut down Sky Valley in the bottom of the seventh, Steel Lake scored four times in the top of the eighth. Leading off Jeff Edd singled to left field. Then Kevin Oyer was hit by a pitch before Quackenbush got a two-RBI double to make it 3-1. Next was Thomason. He got a two-RBI double, too, to make it 5-1.

"Hate to win the game on an error," said Steel Lake Manager, Edd.

But you'll take it?

"Oh yeah, we'll take it", he said, smiling. (This is the least amount of runs we've scored in an all-stars game."

A pretty good ball game was played between Pac West and Steel Lake in which the lights actually went click! With one out left in the seventh inning in the middle of Steel Lake's comeback, tied, 5-5, at Moshier Field in Burien July 15.

"That was a good game for us, said Steel Lake manager Edd. "Great job. Everything is coming together."

So far, so good because Steel Lake won this game the following afternoon, July 16, over Pac West, with a disjointed 6-5 win of this game continuation against the same Pac West team.

The comeback was not disjointed at all. It was smooth as a new Rawlings. Credit for the victory was from a combination of players actions brightening the way, but the first inning first. That is where everything began for Steel Lake, who took an early 2-0 lead over PW.

Jeff Edd singled to left field and Jerrod Bachman singled to the same outfield area before Kevin Oyer drew a walk to load the bases.

Travis Quackenbush showed good fundamental skills, putting a bunt sacrifice down, scoring Edd to make it 1-0. Then Brian Thomason singled and it was 2-0.

Pac West came back with a couple runs in the top of the fourth on two singles laced with two sacrifices and a bunt single nestled in there, too, for the foe.

So, tied up, PW, in the top of five, untied it with three runs on three hits and a couple walks and a hit by pitch.

"He was a little frustrated," said Edd, "But he settled down."

He would be Steel Lake pitcher Brian Thomason, who was rattled by the PW hitters in the fifth a little, from emphasizing how close inside a couple pitches were, including one that hit a PW player.

So, down, 5-2, Steel Lake needed until the bottom of the seventh to win this one.

Thomason led off the inning with a double. An error single for the next batter brought up Ryan Rasmussen, who ripped the ball hard to shortstop and Thomason scored to make it 5-3. Then a bunt sacrifice from Erik Lindenauer put runners at second and third. Jeff Edd then hit a two-RBI double, swinging the bat with control to line it by the outstretched glove of the second baseman into right field and tie it 5-5.

Blink!

The lights went out at Moshier! So,sweet Georgia Brown, everyone had to go to sleep for both teams. Neither team's players got a wink that night, especially Pac West, because Steel Lake was up needing only one run to win it.

They would also do that the next day as Kevin Oyer continued the Steel Lake seventh with two outs. He drew a walk, then Thomason doubled and Lapping singled and an error by the shortstop ended the game.

Good defense highlighted Steel Lake's play in this game. Pac West was hitting the ball. Steel Lake was not making errors to give them unearned runs, all Steel Lake's runs were earned.

"Defense did well again," said Edd.

In the winner's bracket final of the Senior All Stars Little League State Tournament, the District 10 representative, Steel Lake, proved they are still the one as they had no problem pounding previously undefeated southwest Washington foe, Fort Vancouver, 11-1, in a 10-run rule game at Moshier Field in Burien July 17.

"Still winning", said Edd.

Still the one to beat, still having fun, they're one win away from going on to regionals. All that is left at state for Steel Lake is the championship for the right to go to Upland, Calif. and play in the Regional Seniors All Stars Tournament against the state champions from all the western U.S.A., from Arizona to Montana to Utah to California and even Hawaii.

Win that and Nationals is the plum.

"We're not thinking about that yet," said Edd, whose team played Pac West on Saturday morning, July 19, with the Pac West foe needing to beat them twice in order to represent Washington State at regionals competition that starts about a week from now.

Steel Lake beat Pac West in the state tournament here the game before disposing of Fort Vancouver, a good team undefeated throughout their district all stars tournament.

"They (Fort Vancouver) had not lost a game all year," said Edd.

With pitching leading the way.Brian Thomason threw respectable before Ty Zumwalt, the youngest player on the team, came on in relief and allowed no runs through the sixth and seventh. That kind of strong pitching has to have Edd thinking his team is almost thinking Regionals.

The team's abilities seem to be focusing on things that maturely lead to victory. Those things begin with bringing their lunch pails to the mound.

"I just keep throwing the ball," said Zumwalt. "That's my job."

"We are deep with pitching," said Edd. He noted that the pitcher for the Fort Vancouver win, Quackenbush, is good. But the pitcher that came on in relief, Lindenauer, could be an ace starter, too, but was not feeling perfect starting out this tournament.

"His arm was tight so I left him out. He was a little upset about that, said Edd. "He wanted to start a game, but I kept him out, wanting to play it safe. He really threw well against Fort Vancouver. I'm debating starting him the next game (the championship)."

Lindenauer relieved Quackenbush great, getting three strikeouts in two innings work while allowing no runs. He ended the game against Fort Vancouver, throwing the ball with a "pop" sound when hitting the mitt.

But Quackenbush gets the win as the pitcher of record in this game and he deserved it. His loose style out there, smiling and showing the other team he was just having fun out there pitching deadly to them, was, well, deadly.

Quackenbush threw 97 pitches, and he had eight strikeouts, seven ground outs and three fly outs to spread the outs out. He threw a two-hitter while Steel Lake smacked out 13 hits to support him.

The runs came from Steel Lake starting in the top of the first. A Jeff Edd single, a Jerrod Bachman single and a Quackenbush RBI double made it 1-0. Then, in the second for SL, it was Dan Zumwalt, Ty's older brother, singling to open the inning before Lindenauer drew a walk that set up an Edd RBI double that made it 2-0. Bachman' s RBI single made it 3-0.

FV scored one in the top of the third before Steel Lake tacked on six more runs on five hits. They started it with a Quackenbush double, then a Brian Thomason hit by pitch, and a Mason Lapping single to load the bases. Then a two-RBI double made it 5-1 and a two-RBI Jeff Edd single made it 7-1 and a Jerrod Bachman two-RBI single changed things to 9-1.

Then, in the sixth, Steel Lake ended the game with the 10-run rule as Bachman and Oyer singled. Quackenbush doubled in Bachman to make it 10-1, and a walk to Thomason with the bases loaded forced in the last run needed.

Edd went 3-for-4, scoring two runs with two RBI and Quackenbush was 3-for-4 with a three-RBI game.

All the players are from either Thomas Jefferson or Todd Beamer except one from Bellarmine.