North Seattle All Stars played in the Legends All Star Invitational baseball tournament this past weekend, up in Monroe, Washington.

They played two games on Saturday, both of which ended as losses, but the first one was a strange turn of events. NSB played the Marysville Pilots. Pilots were up 2-1 after three innings. Sennet played short stop and he had a lot of action, making two ground outs and one fly out. He also grounded out both times up to bat.
Then the wheels came off for Marysville. NSB scored 13 runs in the fourth inning, putting us up 14-2. Sennet got walked and scored a run in the inning. Unfortunately, we used up too much of the game time that inning. If the game goes to the drop dead time, score reverts to the previous inning. So we had to try to get 3 outs as quick as possible.
They put Sennet in to pitch and he struck out the first batter, but then the pressure got to him to make it happen too fast, as the coaches were yelling to keep pitching and get outs and he couldn’t set up and get into his rhythm. Marysville hit two singles, a double, got 3 walks and scored three runs and then game was called on time. So we had to revert to the end of the third inning’s score: Marysville 2-1 over NSB (instead of 14-5 NSB over Marysville). A bitter pill to swallow. Sennet was pretty crushed and felt terrible. The coaches felt pretty bad too, not only for pushing him and the team to move so quickly to get outs, but for not realizing how the time was getting away until it was too late.

Next game was against the Diamond Dogs. It didn’t go well. Final score was 13-3. Sennet took over pitching in the second inning from Ben down 3-0, no outs, and bases loaded. The first batter he faced hit an outfield single, scoring two. Sennet then struck out the next two batters. Diamond Dogs scored another run on a passed ball. Sennet then walked the next batter and got the following to fly out to end the inning, 6-0.
Sennet was first up to bat and hit a single, but was thrown out at second when the next batter hit into a fielder’s choice. NSB didn’t score any that inning.
Sennet pitched the next inning and didn’t give up any walks or runs and got each batter to ground out. When NSB was batting they got two runs by bases loaded walks, and then scored another on a base hit. 6-3.
Henry then came in to pitch for NSB. He gave up 4 walks and 2 runs and Kai took over pitching. Diamond Dogs scored 2 more runs before the inning was over. 10-3.
NSB didn’t score and Sennet lined out to the third baseman when he was up.
Quinn took over pitching for NSB for the final inning. Lead off batter hit a triple, next batter bunted him home. They ended up scoring 3 to end the inning 13-3. We had three straight ground outs to end the game. Even though it was a lop-sided game, the boys played hard and the coaches were pleased with the effort.

Next day was quite a bit better. Our first game was against the Legends 9u team. Henry lead off batting and hit a triple. Quinn hit single next, scoring Henry. Ben was hit by pitch. Finn singled. Sennet grounded out. NSB then scored one more before the inning was over.
Sennet started at pitcher and pitched a strike out, ground out, single, ground out to end the inning: NSB up 2-0.
Second inning we scored 3 more, Sennet didn’t get up to bat. He stayed in at pitcher and pitched two strike outs and a ground out. NSB up 5-0.
Third inning we scored another run. Sennet walked, stole second and third, and was then stranded. Sennet pitched again, pop out, ground out, walk, strike out. NSB up 6-0.
Fourth inning we scored 3 more, Sennet didn’t get up to bat. Kai came in as pitcher, Legends scored 3, NSB up 9-3.
Fifth inning we didn’t score any. Sennet struck out swinging when he was up to bat. He played short stop and had one out, but Legends scored 2 more. Final NSB 9-5.

Next game was against the Lynden Lasers – maybe the best team in the tournament. Sennet played short stop and made 6 outs, including a sweet double play on a really hard ground ball that he nabbed, ran to second for the first out and fired a missile to first for the second out. He struck out and had a single in the game. Their pitcher was on fire, NSB only had 6 hits the whole game. Lynden won 6-1. But we played them really tough and the team felt good, even in the loss.

That put us in the bracket to compete for 3rd or 4th place against Langley – a team from Canada. This was the most lop-sided game of the tournament for us. NSB won 21-4, with the mercy rule being applied after the third inning. We were up 10-0 after the first. NSB had 18 hits in the game. Sennet went 2 for 3, hitting a single and a double, scored 2 runs (one by stealing home), had an RBI, and also had a sacrifice bunt – moving the runner over to third.

So NSB All Stars ended the tournament 2-3, but finished in third place. And it was mid to upper eighties the whole weekend, so after the final game the boys all jumped in Lake Tye – in their uniforms!