Aug. 1—MOSES LAKE — The Central Washington Sixers 16U (31-7-2) team finished their summer season at the 16u Invitational Tournament in Seattle last weekend. They rode their momentum coming in and became the Top Tier 16U champions.
“It’s always a good feeling, fortunately this team has done a lot of winning, and it’s become an expectation not just with our 16U team, but our program,” said Trey Evans, the Sixers 16U coach.
On Friday, the Sixers played the New Level Hetherington 15U where they came out strong with Aaden Montes singling and scoring two, then another two singles giving them a 4-0 lead in the first inning. A double by Ty Breinholt in the third inning extended the lead to 5-0 and two runs in the fourth and a final run in the fifth ended the game with an 8-0 victory for the Sixers.
Darian Barr started on the mound for the Sixers where he threw six strike outs over four innings. Cooper Vasquez followed throwing one inning of scoreless ball for the Sixers, striking out three.
“It was really good actually,” said Evans. “The bats came out really hot and guys swung it really well.”
In game two, the Sixers faced Rock Creek 16U. The Sixers got on the board first with two runs in the second and Rock Creek followed with a run. Each team earned a run in the third and Rock Creek tied the game in the bottom of the fourth with a run and took the lead in the fifth, scoring two.
The Sixers responded in the top of the sixth inning with two runs of their own and proceeded to hold Rock Creek to zero runs in the bottom of the inning to end the game with a 5-5 tie.
“We didn’t necessarily play the cleanest baseball, we were also missing a couple key guys,” said the coach. “We had some guys step up, able to do more than just what their usual job is, and we were fortunate enough to hang onto a tie for that one.”
Following the tie, the Sixers were determined to win against their next opponent PNW Tritons 16U. Tritons got on the board early in the bottom of the first, but Sixers took the lead in the second inning with a single from Maddox Herod and Breinholt earning a double play each scoring one run. The team would hold the PNW Tritons scoreless for the remainder of the game and earn a 6-1 victory.
Herrud played a key role in the victory stepping up to fill the position of shortstop during the tournament. Herrod went to win the MVP title from the tournament.
“(Herrud) made some amazing plays, the bats were good enough to hang on for a win and the boys played really well together,” said Evans.
The final stretch of the tournament was held Sunday with the Sixers playing New Level Underclass 15U. The Underclass team got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the third followed by both teams earning runs in the fourth inning putting the score at 1-2 in the top of the fifth inning.
Sixers’ Jonathan Purcell tied the game at two in the bottom of the sixth. The Sixers held their opponent scoreless in the top of the seventh and Aaden Montes earned the victory for the team with a single scoring one run in the bottom of the seventh giving the Sixers a 3-2 victory.
“We played a really tight game with New Level Underclass,” said Evans. “It was back and forth throughout the game, we were fortunate enough to walk it off in the seventh.”
The final game in the tournament was against a familiar opponent as the Sixers faced New Level Hetherington once again. Evans said he told the players to just focus on themselves and stay in good spots throughout the game.
“It doesn’t matter if we already played the team once, we know that every day is a new day,” he said.
Hetherington took the lead early, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning with the Sixers responding with one in the bottom of the inning. In the bottom of the third the Sixers tied the game with singles by Breinholt and Ernie Weeks and a double by Purcell.
The Sixers went on to hold Hetherington until the top of the seventh where they scored one run. Along the way the Sixers scored three runs in both the third and fourth innings and four runs in the sixth taking a 11-5 victory over Hetherington and becoming the Invitational tournament champs.
“Our mindset going into it was just, finish the summer, the job’s not done until the last inning,” said Evans. “We went into it with the mindset of finishing the season strong.”
With the summer season concluded he said it went well as they started the year with some new faces who over time gelled into the team. The growth he saw from his players both on and off the field was something that Evans said was the best part about the season.
“They’ve built relationships that they’ll have for their whole lives, they learned how to deal with adversity a little bit better, and they learned how to lead and play as a team,” said the coach.
Evans said the majority of the core group on the team is going move on to 18U after this season and others are still undecided on if they will return next season.
“For our core group that’s sticking together, our goal is to compete this offseason and get ready for a tough 18U schedule,” he said.
