The Gastineau Channel Little League Major All-Stars were eliminated from the Northwest Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, California, on Tuesday night, falling to West Seattle, 11-2.
Thomas Baxter went 3 1/3 innings on the mound and recorded seven strikeouts, one of which helped him get out of a third inning, bases loaded jam.
Antone Araujo went 1-for-3 with an RBI in the second inning. GCLL scored their only other run in the fifth, when Sam Lockhart drew a walk and scored on an error by the first baseman Miles Gosztola.
[Little League: Majors advance to Northwest regional after state tourney sweep]
West Seattle scored early and often. Matthew Henning-Dierickx’s two-run home run fueled a five-run first inning outburst. Tristan Buehring and Jake Daily also went yard as Washington outhit Alaska, 11-1.
It was the third consecutive game of the tournament Juneau was held to two or fewer runs. A fifth-inning go-ahead single by Baxter lifted the squad to a 2-1 win over Murrayhill Little League (Beaverton, Oregon) on Sunday, but Boulder Arrowhead Little League (Billings, Montana) shutout Juneau the following day, 11-0.
As of Wednesday morning, Idaho (2-0) and Montana (1-0) are the lone undefeated teams in the double-elimination tournament. Those two square off in a nationally-televised semifinals matchup on ESPN on Thursday morning. Oregon and Washington, each 1-1, play on Wednesday. The championship game is Sunday morning at 11 a.m.
GCLL has represented Alaska in the Northwest Regional four out of the last 10 years, more than any other team in the state. In addition to this year, GCLL advanced to the regional in 2010, 2012 and 2015. Abbott-O-Rabbit (Anchorage) played in the tournament three times and Knik Little League (Eagle River), Ketchikan and Sitka each once in that span.
