By Christian Bailey

Special to the Sounder

Baseball and softball teams from Orcas Island, Lopez Island and San Juan Island slapped on sunscreen and put on their ball caps for a June 12 post-season tournament.

The minors tournament (ages 8-10) was hosted by Orcas Island and the majors tournament (ages 9-12) was hosted by Friday Harbor’s Baseball League.

“On Orcas everything couldn’t have been more perfect: weather, barbecue, concessions, families, well-matched teams, and umpiring,” said Michele Keyes, Island Baseball and Softball League board President.

The teams played five inning games (three innings machine pitched and two innings kid-pitched).

Orcas faced off against Friday Harbor’s best team for three extra innings to break the tie and win the tournament out of seven teams.

“The hardest team to beat was the Friday Harbor Silver team, but we still did it!” said team member Chase Kantrud.

On Friday Harbor, the Orcas Island majors team faced off against the top Friday Harbor and Lopez Island teams. The first majors game started off against Friday Harbor’s red team. The team played well together and closed out that game with a final score of 11-3. We were on our way!

The next game, which began after two of the Friday Harbor teams played off, was against Lopez. This game continued as successfully as the first, ending with a final score of 11-1. Everyone cheered as they realized, this was it, we were on our way to finals! By this time, Cameron Aragon had pitched his max of 85 pitches, with only one walk.

As his teammate Miles said afterward, “Cameron did so good at pitching. He really helped us get to the final game.”

Then it began – the final game: Orcas majors vs. Friday Harbor gold team. With some slight changes to their “perfect” lineup, Kyle Bowen was brought infield to play first base, and Ivan Bullock was moved to shortstop, with Miles Harlow on the mound. This game, much more intense than the first few, remained 0-0 for the first three innings before heating up to a tie of 5-5 by the end of the sixth inning. They moved into extra innings and Orcas was up to bat, just as the “top” of our lineup began. Pasha Bullock went out there and hit a double, followed by his younger brother Ivan, who hit a double as well. Miles came up next, hitting Ivan home before we were locked out for the rest of the inning. The positions were switched up for the last time, rotating Miles back to shortstop, Ivan back to 1st, and Kyle to catcher, allowing Pasha to warm up and pitch.

Coach Terry Mullan walked over to the mound and spoke to Pasha. “All you have to do is throw strikes and we’re going to (the movie) ‘Ironman.’”

And that’s exactly what he did. The final score was 7-5. All the Orcas fans were out of their seats. The infield, outfield, and even injured player Aidan Kruse ran to the pitchers mound, jumping on each other.

The team returned to Orcas with medals around their necks and celebrated with Coach Terry at the movies. He took them to see “Ironman 2,” just as he promised.

Christian Bailey, age 11, played on the majors team.