The Kent Little League Senior All-Star team bounced back from a tough loss to win the District 10 title to end June.
In July, that same bunch bashed its way to the state championship.
The local Stars, which is comprised of 14-16 year olds, hit a wall from Aug. 3-10 in Ontario, Calif., where they played in the Western Regional tournament, which brought together the top 10 teams from the region.
Kent dropped all four of its games in the tournament, losing big in the opener (17-0 to Ontario, Calif.) and the final game of play (15-0 to Southern California). In between, however, Kent delivered the kind of solid play that had become its trademark throughout the district and state tournaments, despite falling to Nevada 7-6 and Oregon 9-6.
“How we kind of approached (the tournament) is … we had a meeting with the parents and the kids (before the season) and said that we had a feeling we could win districts and state,” coach Kevin Vallala said. “Getting to Western Regionals was kind of like icing on the cake. We were there to have fun and get everybody some playing time so they could get the experience.”
The tournament included teams from Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, Arizona, Oregon, Nevada, three from California and Kent. Southern California knocked off Hawaii 4-3 for the title.
Kent’s typically potent bats were silenced in the opening loss to Ontario, Calif., managing just a single hit in the blowout loss. Dalton Cryderman lined a single into left in the second inning for Kent’s lone hit of the game.
“(Ontario) had a pitcher who was the best we had seen all year,” Vallala said. “It was frustrating. It was the first game and we didn’t know what to expect.”
Kent showed its resiliency the following day, playing its finest game of the tournament in a 7-6 loss to Nevada.
Kent fell behind 2-0 in the first inning, but plated three runs in the third to take a 3-2 lead. Jared Mackie singled to lead off the inning. Garrett Robertson followed with an RBI triple for Kent’s first run of the tournament. Matt Nutting then singled home Robertson to tie the game 2-2. DJ Vallala, who reached on a walk in the inning, later came around on a Ricky Davis single, giving Kent a 3-2 advantage.
That lead, however, didn’t last as Kent went into the bottom of the seventh trailing 7-5. With two outs and nobody on base, Nutting singled and Vallala followed with a double down the left-field line, putting the tying run in scoring position. Nutting would score moments later on a passed ball, but that’s as close as Kent would get to a victory.
“That was the one game we were really disappointed with,” said Vallala.
For the tournament, Nutting led the offense, hitting .667 (6-for-9) with three runs scored and three RBIs. Vallala added a .429 clip (3-for-7) with 2 RBIs while Cryderman posted a .333 mark (3-9) with 1 RBI. Cryderman also delivered the finest pitching performance of the tournament for the Kent Stars, logging five strong innings with five strikeouts against Oregon.
Of the 15 players on the team, only Cryderman, Vallala and Matthew de Wald will be too old to play next year.
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