12U All Stars reach regional semi-finals

The Whitefish All Stars 12U baseball squad reached the semi-finals of the Cal Ripken Pacific Northwest tournament in Kelso, Wash., last week after scoring decisive wins over Kelso and Belgrade. They eventually fell to a strong Boise, Idaho, squad 7-2 and were knocked from the tourney.

"We accomplished our goals this season," Whitefish coach Brent Wetsch said. "One of those was to go to regional and win a few games. We did that."

He praised the team's efforts.

"They're a good bunch of kids and worked hard all season," Wetsch said. "Hopefully, next season we can go even further."

The All Stars got off to a slow start in Kelso during the opening day of pool play, starting with a 12-1 loss to Conway, Wash., and followed with a 12-0 loss to East Boise, Idaho.

"We were in the toughest bracket," Wetsch said, explaining that the team may have had a little bit of the jitters, too. Conway and East Boise ended up playing for the championship later in the tourney.

The All Stars rebounded nicely the next day against Kelso. Whitefish was up 10-2 by the second inning and tallied 17 hits in the game. AJ Wetsch led the team with a 3-RBI triple. He also scored the win on the mound after relieving Joey Walp. Jed Nagler started the game and pitched four strong innings.

Kelso crept back into the game late, nearly evening the score at 10-9, but Whitefish posted two more runs to secure the win.

"They came back on us, but we held them," Wetsch said.

The win earned Whitefish the No. 3 seed in bracket play, where they faced a team from Belgrade in the first round.

Luke May started on the mound and pitched six impressive innings, allowing only one run on a passed ball in the 7-1 win.

"He pitched awesome," Wetsch said of May's performance.

While May was solid on the mound, the team's big bats made an appearance to help put points on the board. Cooper Donahue and Nagler each had a home run, and AJ Wetsch knocked a triple as the All Stars tallied all of their runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings.

The win put Whitefish in the semi-finals against East Boise, where they lost a tough battle 7-2. The All Stars were in the game until they gave up two 3-run homers to the same Boise batter.

"When you get to this level, there're going to be some good hitters," Wetsch said.

Despite coming up short of the title game, the All Stars were pleased with their strong performance at the regional level against teams from much larger cities.

Wetsch said the highlight of the trip was getting each player on the roster some valuable playing time.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," he said. "Not very many kids get the opportunity to accomplish what they did."