One year ago, the fledgling Mercer Island Travel Team (MITT) program took its 9-and-under and 10-and-under teams to the Pasco Memorial Day Tournament in Pasco, Wash., but returned hat in hand.

“The Eastern Washington kids play the highest level of baseball in the state, and we weren’t ready,” said Brock Mansfield, president of the MITT baseball program.

What a difference a year makes. The team headed back to Pasco over Memorial Day weekend, and the results were dramatically different.

In successive games, the 10-and-under Thunder knocked off the Richland All-Stars 6-4 and the Pasco All-Stars 13-3. It had lost to both of these teams the previous year. During the semifinals, the team routed the West Valley [Yakima] All-Stars, a perennial Eastern Washington power, 12-1 to become the first Mercer Island team to advance to the finals of this competitive tournament.

“I think they were shocked,” said Earl Bell, assistant coach for the Island team. “We just outplayed them in every aspect of the game.”

When asked to identify the reason for the improvement, Mansfield pointed to a change in approach by the second-year program.

“One of our goals of the travel team program is to provide the best kids on the Island a reason to stay on the Island to play youth baseball,” he said. “A big part of that is giving them access to great training and coaching. So this year, we made the investments necessary to bring all of those resources on Island.”

These investments included adding a weekly player development program in the winter, led by new Mercer Island High School coach Brian Postoshnick, and tacked on one practice a week for the MITT teams (before, they just played games on Sundays). Additionally, the program added two ex-professional players to help teach the coaches how to develop the team’s hitting and pitching mechanics.

“Adding these resources has allowed us to quickly be able to compete against the elite teams in the state, while maintaining all of the benefits of community-based baseball,” Mansfield said, pointing out that the team has already beaten traditionally strong teams, such as the Power, the Storm and now these Eastern Washington teams. “With all of our kids playing Little League as well, it really gives us the best of both worlds.”

This new level of play was never more evident than in the championship Pasco game against the Puyallup Bombers, one of the state’s elite Pony teams.

The Thunder started fast, scoring seven runs in the first two innings. Back-to-back doubles by William Mansfield and Michael Bantle bought in the first two runs. Five more runs were added on in the second, as Teddy Vandervelden, Carl Bell, Jeremy Moss and Aidan Plummer strung together a group of singles, and David Emanuels cleared the bases with a double to deep right-center.

“We thought we had them,” said Mansfield. “But just because we can win doesn’t mean we are ready to win. The Bombers are one of the best teams around for a reason.”

With the 90-degree temperatures and the wind starting to pick up, the Bombers bats came alive, and they scored five runs in the bottom of the second to get back in the game.

In the fourth inning, both teams changed pitchers and the game turned into a defensive struggle.

The Bombers managed to scratch out one run in the fourth and one in the fifth, while the Thunder used a walk, fielder’s choice, and two stolen bases to bring home Bantle in the fifth, leaving the game at 8-8 as it headed into the sixth inning.

Bell led off with a single, but the Bombers pitching stepped up, striking out two and inducing an inning-ending ground ball to halt the threat.

With the heat and wind at itspeak, the Thunder lost just enough of its edge to let one run get around, scoring with two outs on an extremely close play at the plate.

While disappointing, the Thunder coaches only saw positives from this experience. “The kids played amazing all tournament and were literally one hit away from winning the whole thing. Our program is just Mercer Island kids, so it was just a great moment for Mercer Island youth baseball and hopefully a sign of things to come.”

With the six other MITT teams also having good results at their Memorial Day tournaments, including a third place finish by the 9-and-under team, the future looks bright for the program.

“Just wait until next year,” said Mansfield.

MITT baseball provides children ageds 8 through 12 with the opportunity to play tournament-level baseball on a Mercer Island-only team. To participate in MITT, you must first participate in Mercer Island Little League. For more information about either program, please contact the Mercer Island Boys & Girls Club.