By: Mike DeWitt
District 9 battled their way back from the bottom of the bracket at the Big League World Series but fell to West in a back-and-forth game that ended the team’s quest for a championship.
In a rematch of District 9’s first tournament game, a 3-0 loss, District 9 battled from an early 2-0 lead after West drove in two runs in the first inning. The score remained until Jarod Nickel made contact and brought home Drew Hernandez on a fielder’s choice. John Corey would strike out on the next at bat, but District 9 had finally found a groove in the batters box.
Two innings later, in the bottom of the sixth, Bruce Buurstra knotted the score at two with a line drive to right field that brought Jace Beatty home. Two batters later, Corey hit a sacrifice bunt to bring Brendan Oosse home and gave District 9 a 3-2 lead with one inning to play.
However, the lead would be short-lived as West scored on an error and then on a sacrifice fly by Kawena Alo Kaonohi that scored Shadd Santo and gave West the lead for good.
District 9 had one final chance in the bottom of the seventh that was quickly squashed due to two strikeouts and a groundout to the pitcher.
While the end result wasn’t what District 9 was hoping for, the boys had a fantastic tournament that started with four straight shutouts in the Regional Tournament and extended to the semifinals of the United States Bracket at the Big League World Series.
