Eastlake's Furious Rally Brings Home Little League District Title for Sammamish Team

Eastlake looked like it was finished. Down to its final six outs, trailing by six runs, it appeared the 12-and-under Little League All-Stars magical run had finally run out. One inning and eight runs later, they were celebrating as champions.

Josh Jayagaran's hard ground ball skipped off the glove of Bellevue West shortstop Colin Suter in the bottom of the sixth inning and Eastlake rallied with eight runs in the final inning-plus to shock Bellevue, 9-8, to take home the District 9 Little League Championship on Tuesday afternoon at Hartman Park in Redmond.

Eastlake was down to its final six outs, trailing 7-1, before a late barrage of hits overtook the seemingly healthy Bellevue lead.

"It's just a team that never gives up," Kirkland manager Ron Carney said.

Eastlake trailed 8-5 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but quickly put the pressure on Bellevue, loading the bases with no one out on back-to-back singles and an error. Cole Peterson then singled up the middle with two strikes to make it 8-7. A walk to Elliot Carney, who had homered the inning before, reloaded the bases, before Mark Whitley grounded to second and Cole Brinkman beat the throw home. Jayagaran then hit his sharp grounder to set off the Eastlake celebration.

"That's a great hitting team," Bellevue manager Jeff Nealy said. "They're going to be very successful because they can hit one through nine."

Bellevue looked to be firmly in control, building a 7-1 lead going into bottom of the fifth inning behind four homeruns, including two by Trevor Neely.

But Eastlake started to climb back into the game with some homeruns of its own. The vaunted 3-4 hitters, Carney and Whitley hit back-to-back moonshots to make it 7-4 and Justin Armbruester doubled in a run to make it 7-5.

"It was a momentum turner for them," Carney said of the homeruns. "When we'd hit, it, we'd hit right to them and those homeruns helped kind of spark the team. They were feeling a little bit down there for a bit and those helped spark the team and they realized they could do it."

The win was Eastlake's seventh in a row in the district tournament. After a second-round 9-1 loss to Kirkland National, Eastlake won its next seven by a combined score of 71-22. Eastlake had to beat previously undefeated Bellevue West twice in order to win the district title, getting its first win against them with a 13-0 win on Monday afternoon before Tuesday's thriller.

"We started the tournament not hitting so well and then kind of settled in and really had confidence in being able to hit," Carney said. "They just always got the key hits when we needed them. I'm so proud of them, they played so well."

Eastlake next heads to the 12-and-under state championships in Vancouver, beginning on Saturday, July 23.   

"This is a great group of kids, I've thought that all season," Carney said. "Not only are they great ballplayers, but very positive attitudes and really, really hard workers. This is a big deal for them and I'm very proud of them."