Back-and-forth baseball, great baseball, but in the end it was Steel Lake being the killer of the local PacWest boys of summer’s dreams.

Pac West of Burien lost, 10-9, with an extra inning of play needed to decide fates of the 2008 Senior All Stars Little League State Tournament at Moshier Field July 19.

“Fun game,” said Pacwest’s manager John Ramirez. “These guys (did great). It was the toughest we played all year.”

Maybe all the more tougher to accept the loss. But, really, there is no need to be down about anything. This Pacwest team left it all on the field and not just in the championship.

They had to play one extra game than Steel Lake in this state tournament which sucked up pitching from PacWest, which is a rare and rich commodity in this kind of “state” stuff, where the best of the best from all the different Washington state districts play head to head for the right to go on to regionals in Upland, Calif.

In fact, Steel Lake played only four games, getting to cruise through the winner’s bracket while PacWest played six games total. Quite a difference.

It all came down to the very end of the championship, which was tied, 9-9, after the regulation seven innings were played. The game’s play extended thanks to a wonderful two-run comeback by PacWest in the top of the seventh featuring a Caleb Ramirez walk and a Joey Young RBI double making it 9-8 and a Garrett Bojorquez RBI single to tie things at 9-9.

And, it all came down to Jeremy Rowden on the mound pitching, really being one of the last in line for PacWest as far as quality pitchers go. That is, unless they were to give themselves no chance in the next game by throwing proven hurlers Young and Bojorquez so they could not pitch likely in the championship. And Rowden held his own out there on the hill, and not just for one inning. He also was solid in the seventh, holding Steel Lake scoreless on three straight outs -- a strikeout followed by two shortstop to first outs in a row. And, also, Rowden held good serve on the mound in the sixth, coming in midway through for ace starter Ryan Lingle, who had to go out that inning after a well pitched game. Lingle had to go due to the 95 pitch count rule in Little League. Rowden’s sixth, seventh, and eighth pitch count total was 45 pitches so he was on the hill for quite awhile.

But, as was being said, ultimately, this game all came down to Rowden pitching in the bottom of the eighth. He was getting things to not go his way from the start unfortunately for he and PacWest. The first batter doubled and the second flew out to left field.

So that was good because that “second batter” was the No. 4 hitter in the order for Steel Lake, as in the “clean up” hitter. That is usually a team’s better hitter, if not best.

Bachman had gone 2-for-4 with an RBI and couple runs scored for his team before this at-bat, to note. So, the next batter was up, Bachman taken care of. Thomason was the next batter, and Rowden decided he wanted to challenge that great challenge. Thomason was Steel Lake’s best hitter for the tournament, not to mention the regular season going a sparkling .570 at the plate.

Thomason was 3-for-3 with three RBI and a walk to this point in the game, with a walk thrown in. So the Rowden order of getting hitters out was not good, facing the meat of the lineup.

But Rowden wanted to get the kill, getting out Steel Lake’s best batter. So, as Rowden was up to the plate, he went out and spoke with catcher Luke Werle about the matter at hand -- Thomason.

“I called ‘time’ to talk to Luke (Werle),” said Rowden of Werle coming out to the mound during that last at-bat as the fear-inspiring, massive 6-4, 220 Thomason stood in the batter’s box. “I told him I didn’t want to walk him.”

Rowden’s look in his eyes after the game was still pure determination and maybe even pure disbelief, coming after what looked like tears maybe had flowed earlier off his face. It really was pure grief. Death of a season and playing with this team had come. He was the last player sitting on the dugout bench, with a couple other teammates getting gear and supplies put away. Included there was Werle, who had a sensational tournament catching, hitting big RBI hits, and pitching a big win for PacWest in the loser’s bracket semifinal against Nisqually Basin two nights before this championship. And Young was in the dugout, too.

Good job was said to Young and Werle. Two players that left their hearts on their sleeve in this one and all tournament.

They said it all with their play all tournament, all of them did, even with maturity coming after a somewhat dysfunctional win over North Central that Werle noted that his players got in a bickering match with.

“We came out with a different attitude the next game,” following a Werle win pitching that one, 10-4, July 16.

But, back to Rowden’s pitching battle with Thomason. That big Rowden kid was just going to end this season for Pacwest on a high or low note. No in between. So Rowden went after Thomason with a pitch thrown with heat, and Thomason hit a good, well-placed (high and outside) fastball into right field, going up high with the bat so his forearms could see some careful extension.

“I left it up to Jeremy,” said manager Ramirez. “If he wanted to walk him, OK, and if he wanted to play and tough it out, that’s fine too. He did a good job in a tough situation.”

“We are at state,” said Rowden, looking into the dugout dirt, looking like he would be the last one out on this day.

Yes, they were at state, where the best show up and the rest never get to show, not having won their district tourney like PacWest did for District 7. And it was a great game that no one will say was not one for the memory books. It was.

Especially the Rowden face-off vs. Thomason that showed that Rowden is a gamer and that he and the rest of this team play for Highline. All but Bojorquez, who goes to Kennedy, will be making thr Pirates proud, win or lose. He got stronger batting as the tournament went along. He also closed a close game on the mound.

It was just a great all around effort, playing hard until “death” faced them and they met it head on, do or die.

“That is the way they play,” said Jim Hovland, coach of Pacwest under Ramirez’ managing. “They want to earn everything.”

And sometimes when you go to earn, you find out the labor is ready to work you over. Thomason is a premier player, not just hitting well in this tournament. He’s also a key player for 4A Todd Beamer High School team as a sophomore last season. In fact, the Steel Lake team was made up of future stars of Todd Beamer as well as another Federal Way area 4A team, Thomas Jefferson. Both schools made it to the postseason in the SPSL, like Highline did in the Seamount in 3A.

So it was something to be proud of for PacWest’s players just getting there, through having to play an extra game at state, including losing to this Steel Lake team in a fantastic 6-5 loss in the bottom of the seventh as Steel Lake came back from 5-2 down entering that inning that put them in the loser’s bracket fairly early in the tournament. Steel Lake played a total of four games while PacWest played seven games. Quite a difference there.

To the championship game we go. Steel Lake opened with a run in the bottom of the first inning, on two hits, to make it 1-0. In the top of the third, PacWest countered a run on two hits back-to-back from Bojorquez and Lingle that tied it 1-1. Steel Lake fired back with three runs in the bottom of the third, on four hits to make it 4-1. PacWest returned serve with a couple runs on one hit from Skyler Servis, who knocked in Caleb Ramirez who reached base by error and benefited getting to an extra base, third, from a James Hovland sacrifice that made it 4-3.

“The game all the way through was they score, we score, they score, we score, then we ran out of innings,” said the manager, Ramirez.

Steel Lake extended its lead to 7-3 on three hits, including back-to-back 2-RBI and RBI hits. Then, not wasting anytime to make up that four-run deficit, PacWest rallied for two runs on two hits, thanks to a Ramirez 2-RBI double and a Kasey Daw walk before that made it 7-5. Steel Lake was shut down by Lingle, 1-2-3, in the bottom of the fifth before PacWest tied this one up, 7-7, on a Brooks Allen leadoff single followed by a Young walk, a Rowden hit-by-pitch and a Werle 2-RBI double. Then came the Steel Lakers one more time, putting two more runs on the board to make it 9-7 on two hits. Then came the rest of the scoring, already foretold above, that showed the ending of greatness.