By Luke Olson
Sports Editor
This time around, the first inning was in favor of the West Seattle Little Leaguers.
After surrendering 11 straight runs in the first inning against Idaho two days prior, West Seattle came back with a vengeance. And unfortunately, it was Alaska who had to endure it.
West Seattle scored five runs early in the first and held on for a 11-2 win over Alaska.
Matthew Henning-Dierickx was prodigious not only at the plate for West Seattle, but on the mound.
He went 3.2 innings pitched, allowing just one earned run on one hit and five strikeouts. His lone mistake came in the second inning after yielding a lead-off walk. Two batters later, a single to center had Alaska on the board to cut West Seattle’s lead to five.
But, the rest of the pitching staff held it down. A couple walks were given up from Robert Foisy in the fifth—and an error by Miles Gosztola had Alaska tack on another—but already holding a 9-2 lead, it was not anything to sweat over.
“Matthew had a great game,” head coach Mike Fahy said. “I’m really happy with the way he threw. Robbie and Parker also did a nice job coming in to close out the game.”
As for the torrid start to the game, Dierickx got it going with his two-run bomb to straight away center. Casey Fahy followed with a double and Robert Trigg’s single had West Seattle pressing.
A wild-pitch brought in Fahy and Matthew Hazlegrove later scored two with a hard ground ball to right field.
“It was great to jump out early,” Fahy said. “I think our boys did a good job keeping the pressure on them offensively throughout the game.”
West Seattle added more runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
Jake Daily knocked one over the fence to extend his teams lead to eight. And in the sixth, Tristan Buehring did as well with his two-run homer to cap off the crucial win.
They will now face off against Oregon in the semi-finals (the state champs from Murrayhill Little League in Beaverton, OR).
But, with backs against the wall once again, they are mentally ready for the next test.
“We know that we have to leave it all out on the field from here on out,” Fahy commented. “I believe the boys are mentally prepared and hungry. They know there’s no tomorrow if we don’t win today and I’m confident they’re going to give it everything they’ve got.”

Here’s video of today’s victory:
https://youtu.be/bfvT27K2R2Y