GH American 9-10s win first two games at state tourney

Lights-out pitching leads to consecutive shutout victories

Marques Hunter

of the Gateway

The Gig Harbor American 9-10-year-old Little League all-star team is on a roll.

Gig Harbor dominated last Saturday during a 9-0 shutout in its opening game of the state tournament against Richland National — the District 12 champion — at Valley Ridge Park in SeaTac. The Americans turned around on Sunday and shut out District 7 champion West Seattle, 5-0.

During the first two games of the state tournament, the Gig Harbor pitching staff was better than any of the other 12 district representatives. No other team matched Gig Harbor’s back-to-back shutouts.

Against Richland National, the Americans’ RJ Green was dialed in. He allowed just two hits and struck out a half-dozen batters in 5 2/3 innings. Davis Alexander came in with two outs in the top of the sixth and closed out the game.

Gig Harbor manager Mike Ditter said his team played with a lot of tenacity.

“Our kids played a stellar game,” Ditter said. “I was a little surprised at the level. But give credit, we made some great hits, we had some base runners and made critical hits at critical times to get those runs in.”

The Americans jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first. After Green and shortstop Cole Price walked, Alexander roped a ball to the left-center gap for a two-run triple. Then came a double steal with runners at the corners, and Alexander darted toward home for a 3-0 lead.

Richland manager Kevin Kjarmo made a pitching change before the inning was over.

In the third, Alexander demonstrated some of his power. With two runners on base, he launched a towering ball to straightaway center field for a three-run home run, extending the Americans’ lead to 7-0. He finished with five RBIs.

“It was my second at-bat, so it felt kind of good,” Alexander said. “It was an inside pitch, and I just turned on it.”

He added that the team’s defense played really well during the shutout.

Richland hit a number of sharply hit ground balls to the infield. And with the synthetic turf, the balls were coming at a faster rate of speed. To simulate the experience of playing at state, Ditter’s players practiced at the Gig Harbor High School upper fields, which have the same type of field surface.

Since Gig Harbor was hitting the ball solidly, doubles turned into triples and the Americans used their speed on the basepaths to advance runners.

Gig Harbor second baseman Mack Ditter said his team’s performance was impressive.

“Because I think we’ve had only one other game where there were no errors in the infield,” Ditter said.

Gig Harbor 5, West Seattle 0

In the second game of the state tournament, Alexander struck out nine, gave up just one hit and one walk in 5 1/3 innings to earn the win. Sam Gagliardi came in to close out the game in the sixth, striking out two batters.

Gig Harbor’s Cole Price drove in two runs in the second inning to give the Americans the lead. In the third, Gagliardi, Davis and Blake Cantu each had base hits that led to a three-run inning.

Gig Harbor was set to play in the quarterfinals against North Bothell after press time on Tuesday.

Little League tournament

The Gig Harbor American 9-10-year-olds were set to play District 8 champion North Bothell in the Little League state quarterfinals after press time on Tuesday.

If they won, they would play the winner of the Alderwood (District 1 champs)-Kent (District 10 champs) matchup at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Valley Ridge Park in SeaTac. If Gig Harbor lost on Tuesday, it would play at 8 p.m. on Wednesday.

Visit www.littleleaguewa.org for bracket updates.