Mercer Island Majors All-Stars finish second at state tournament
Published 8:44 am Tuesday, August 10, 2010
The Mercer Island Little League Majors All-Stars quest to return to the Northwest Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, California ended on Saturday night with a 3-2 loss in the Washington State championship game at the hands of the Auburn All-Stars. The loss was only the team’s second against nine wins during the all-star season which included a second consecutive District 9 championship.
The all-star run for the Majors All-Stars team started back on the weekend of July 10th and 11th. The team exploded with ten home runs on the opening weekend leading to a pair of victories, 16-0 over Falls Little League and 11-0 over Thunderbird Little League. The MI All-Stars followed these wins with a 15-4 victory over perennial power Eastlake Little League to set up a showdown with Kirkland American ace pitcher Connor Johnson in the winners bracket final. Josh Stenberg rung up 13 strikeouts in less than six innings of work to lead MI to a 2-0 victory. In the district championship game, Mercer Island faced Redmond West, last year’s 11U District 9 champs. Harrison Goonewardene started for MI and pitched a gem while the offense supplied another three home runs and a total of eight runs en route to an 8-1 victory. For the district tournament, seven MI players hit two or more home runs for a total of 17 over the course of five games, but the most impressive statistic was the team ERA of 0.23. The MI pitching staff surrendered only one earned run over the five games.
Following the district tournament, the Mercer Island Majors All-Stars traveled to Elma, Wash., for the State Tournament to compete with the other 12 district champions from around the State for a berth to the Northwest Regional Tournament. The first game at State was against the District 4 champions from Fort Vancouver Little League. Fueled by a combined four home runs and nine RBIs from Josh Stenberg and David Emanuels, the MI All-Stars broke open what was a close game early and ran away with a 12-1 victory in the opener. The following night MI faced hard throwing right-hander Jordan Wood from the District 3 champion Centralia All-Stars and managed only two hits. But one of those hits was a home run from Eric Kim while a combined pitching effort from Anthony Scalzo, Harrison Goonewardene and Stenberg shut out the Centralia offense. MI prevailed 2-0 and advanced to the next round of the winners bracket.
Mercer Island faced more outstanding pitching in its third game at State against the Northeast Seattle All-Stars, the District 8 champions. The bats were quiet again while the pitchers took center stage. The MI all-stars managed only one run for the game on a third inning home run off the bat of Stenberg. Clinging to a 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the sixth inning, MI allowed runners to reach 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Pitcher David Emanuels proceeded to strike out the side to preserve the victory and the team advanced to the winners bracket championship game against the undefeated Auburn All-Stars.
District 10 champion Auburn served notice early in the winners bracket final as #3 batter Isaiah Hatch homered in the first inning to give Auburn a 1-0 lead. Following another run by Auburn, Josh Stenberg homered in the bottom of the third inning with one aboard to tie the game at two. But Auburn came right back with runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings on their way to a 5-2 victory.
Mercer Island dropped down to the losers bracket for a game with the District 12 champion West Valley All-Stars. Facing a depleted West Valley pitching staff, the team’s offense came alive early and scored five runs in the first two innings. The offense continued to pour it on with runs in every inning en route to an 11-0, five-inning victory to earn a rematch against Auburn.
The championship game could not have gone any better for the first five innings. The team took a 2-0 lead into the sixth inning behind a stellar pitching effort from starter David Emanuels. But in the sixth inning Auburn managed to score three runs without hitting a ball out of the infield. MI came up scoreless in the bottom of the sixth and had to settle for a 2nd place finish. While the team didn’t achieve it’s dream of a return trip to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, all in all it was another outstanding run for the Mercer Island Little League Majors All-Stars.
The team was led in hitting during the 11-game all-star season by Josh Stenberg, who batted .548 with an on base percentage (OBP) of .622. Josh also led the team in home runs with six and RBIs with 16. David Emanuels batted .455 over the course of the 11 games and added five home runs and 14 RBIs. Sam Pugel finished with a .400 batting average and 0.520 OBP. Griffin Kane led the team in runs scored with 13. But it was the team’s offense that struggled overall at State, as the team batting average dropped from .415 at Districts to .233 at State. The pitching staff was the most pleasant surprise for this team as it allowed only four earned runs over the course of 11 games for a team ERA of 0.39. No pitcher allowed more than one earned run. Josh Stenberg led the way with a 0.28 ERA and 34 Ks with only one unintentional walk in 21.1 innings pitched. David Emanuels allowed only seven hits and one earned run in 14.1 innings of work while striking out 19 batters. Harrison Goonewardene fanned 18 batters while allowing only five hits and one earned run in 11 innings.
