Local 10-U tournament team wins Cal Ripken state championship

Battling 100 degree heat, a group of north Clark County 10-year-olds won the Cal Ripken League Washington state championship on Saturday, July 6.

The Battle Ground-based Centerfield Lookouts 10-U tournament baseball team won the
championship game, 4-3, in six innings over a Black Hills club, a team favored to win it all, Lookouts head coach Junior Miller said.

However, the season wasn’t always looking like a state championship finish, Miller said.

“We started off just getting to know each other, you know. We had some kids that never played together,” Miller said. “We started off pretty slow. I think in our first 20 games, we were 8-12. And currently, after winning state, we’re sitting at a record of 37-18. So we kind of turned it around pretty quick. We won a couple of championships, a couple of runner-up spots and some other tournaments, but obviously the big one [was] the state championship.”

The team played six games over four days, with three on July 6 alone, at the Regional Athletic Complex in Lacey. It ended the tournament with a 5-1 record and a title banner brought back to Clark County.

“Obviously it was pretty warm, close to 100 degrees, and on that Saturday we actually ended up playing three games, starting at 9 a.m., then one at 1 p.m. and then again with the championship game at 3 p.m.,” Miller said. “So, 10-year-old kids, it makes it pretty tough to keep them just paying attention to everything that’s going on … and nonetheless for three games in one day. But for the kids, man, it’s on them. They’ve put in the effort since last August.”

Miller added that his team practiced through rain, snow and then the heat of summer. He said, in their first year of Lookout baseball, the players built chemistry with the practices and tournaments leading up to the championship.

The Lookouts 10-U baseball team will head south to Eugene, Oregon, for the Pacific Northwest Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth Regionals on July 24 through July 27.