State Champions
15U nationals move on to Regional tournament in Centralia, Wash.

By Ray Rodriguez
Argus Observer
Saturday, July 25, 2009 11:25 PM PDT

Ontario —The SRV National head coach Dave Parsons had been waiting all season for this moment — a moment to where he saw his 15-year old Babe Ruth team grow up to be men.

Saturday, the maturation process came full circle.

The Nationals broke open a four-all deadlock with seven runs in the top of the eighth inning and held off the cinderella Blue Mountain squad 11-4 in the championship game of the 15U North Oregon State Tournament at Elks Memorial Field in Ontario.

“I am just proud of the kids for rising up. They finally stood on both feet and said, ‘I am a man, I am a grownup.’ That is what we have been waiting for,” Parsons said. “We have talked about it all season long and we finally got it. We had to wait until now, I wish would have done it a long time ago, but that was the moment where these guys stood on their own. Without me or without another coach, they stood up, took control of the situation and I am proud of them for that.”

Brady Baker tossed seven innings, allowed nine hits, walked four and struck out eight in earning the win. Rocky Garcia pitched the eighth and final inning and struck out two to pick up the save.

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For Baker, who allowed eight of the hits through the first three innings, he was just glad his team was able to get over the hump and claim a win — Something the team had been without for the past two seasons.

“We have been playing and all this stuff since we were 13 and finally, we get to regionals so it is kind of nice,” Baker said. “It felt to good to win that game because I was tense there after a while. It was a matter of getting our minds straight and figuring out we can hit the ball.”

And hit the ball the Nationals did in the top of the eight inning, where they sent 11 batters to the plate and racked up five hits and had two players reach base via the walk.

With one out in the eighth, Shadd Samio worked a walk, and teammates Tom LaMue and Gabe Grove notched back-to-back singles to load the bases for Austin Tolman. Tolman delivered a bloop RBI single to center to give the Nationals a 5-4 lead. Garcia was then issued an RBI bases-loaded walk to make the score 6-4. The big hit of the inning came off the bat of Baker, who cracked the first pitch he saw for a two-run double to left and give the Nationals an 8-4 lead.

Tony Machuca was up next, and he hit a slow groundball to the Blue Mountain shortstop, who fired a low throw to first for the error. Garcia and Baker scored to make the score 10-4. Spencer Pollock capped the frame with a RBI single to centerfield.

“It’s been three years coming and it feels so great,” Pollock said. “I can’t explain it right now. It is just amazing. We lost two years straight to Pendleton, so it feels great to finally be on top.”

In all, the Nationals slammed out 14 hits and were led by Baker, who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Machuca, Pollock, LaMue and Grove racked up two hits apiece.

Now it is off to the Babe Ruth regional tournament in Centralia, Wash. starting on Aug. 3, where the Nationals have aspirations of bringing home some more hardware.

“These games here made us realize how much harder we are going to have to work to bring home some hardware from up at regionals,” Nationals player Austin Tolman said. “We can accomplish as much as we want to. The only thing that can beat us is ourselves.”