Kennewick American 12-year-olds sweep Cal Ripken national tournament

Dre Dimond’s two-out, RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning scored Hunter VanHollebeke from second base, earning the Kennewick American 12-year-olds the championship title in the Cal Ripken National Invitational Tournament in Branson, Mo.

The win gave Kennewick a perfect 8-0 record for the week — 5-0 in pool play, and three consecutive victories in the final bracket play.

It also gives the Tri-City team the tournament title.

It was a perfect end to what was before this tournament a lost summer for the Tri-City squad.

In 2019, as 11-year-olds, this Kennewick American team won the Cal Ripken Pacific Northwest Regional championship for 11-year-olds.

Unfortunately for them, Cal Ripken Baseball does not have a World Series tournament for 11-year-olds. But the organization offered the Kennewick team a spot in the 2020 World Series in Missouri.

The team accepted and then the coronavirus hit. Cal Ripken Baseball — as well as all other youth sports — were canceled last spring and this summer.

But in July, Cal Ripken offered the Tri-City team a chance to come to Branson for an invitational tournament. KA officials, parents and players — after determine safety protocols were strong enough — accepted the invitation.

“The boys have worked so hard over the years,” said Kennewick American manager Clayton Rawlings. “They put an incredible amount of time and work.”

Especially this past week after the team lost a star player to injury in the second game of pool play.

Standout pitcher and cleanup hitter Taron Carlson was lost for the tournament last weekend when he broke his arm.

But Rawlings said that Carlson’s teammates picked up the slack the rest of the week.

“This week was so tough to lose one of our best players to a serious injury,” said Rawlings. “I feel like the boys came together in a tough time and really leaned on each other to get through every game. I couldn’t be any more proud of them and their desire to succeed.”

Kennewick won its first bracket-play game Thursday, beating Galesburg, Ill., 10-0 in a game shortened to 4 innings because of the 10-run rule.

Kennewick pitcher Morgan Dodson tossed a 1-hitter and fanned four in the win.

Trayce Teagle was 3-for-3 with two triples, while Tate Cissne added a two-run home run.

On Friday, Kennewick beat Springfield, Mo., 5-1 in the tournament semifinals.In that contest, Dimond keyed a 4-run fifth inning with a two-run single.

Pitchers Deegan Quesenberry and Dylan Mamiya split pitching duties, tossing three innings each. Quesenberry struck out four batters, while Mamiya fanned six more.

The victory seat up a rematch with the Connecticut team, which Kennewick beat the previous weekend 3-2 in pool play in nine innings.

Again, Saturday’s title matchup was a close battle between these two teams.

Dylan Mamiya singled in the bottom of the first for Kennewick, stole second base, and scored on an RBI single by Tate Cissne.

Norwalk answered with a run in the top of the third inning on an RBI ground out.

But then came Dimond’s heroics in the bottom of the sixth. Hunter VanHollebeke doubled to get into scoring position before Dimond hit the game-winner with the RBI single for the 2-1 victory.

Mamiya, Trayce Teagle and Deegan Quesenberry combined on the mound.

As a group, over the past four years, this team finished with a 165-10 record, said Clayton Rawlings.

“They never cease to amaze me, and I feel blessed to have been their coach over the past five years,” he added.

Kennewick American team members are Taron Carlson, Tate Cissne, Angel Correa, Wyatt Curtis, Dre Dimond, Morgan Dodson, Dylan Mamiya, Deegan Quesenberry, Karson Rawlings, Trayce Teagle, and Hunter VanHollebeke.

Besides Clayton Rawlings as team manager, assistant coaches are Aaron Carlson, Jeremy Dimond and Aaron Teagle.

Zamora places 3rd

Kennewick’s Brittney Zamora finished third in Saturday’s Wofford 100 at South Sound Speedway in Rochester.

It was the first race of the season in the Northwest Super Late Model Series.

Zamora, who has been a NWSLMS series champion two times, had raced in Rochester two weeks ago in a Super Late Model event and won the race.

She was vying for a fourth consecutive victory at Sound Sound on Saturday night.

Zamora was the seventh-fastest of 15 drivers during Saturday’s practice laps, but she moved up to being the sixth fastest in qualifying.

Max Schroeder, a 22-year-old rookie from Tacoma and racing on his home track, won the event.

Gracin Raz, a 23-year old from Lake Oswego, Ore., finished second.Zamora, 21, finished third and was 3.031 seconds behind Schroeder at the finish line.

Notes

▪ Through Saturday’s games, the Boston Bruins have a 2 games to 1 advantage over the Carolina Hurricanes.

In Boston’s 4-3, two-overtime win over Carolina on Wednesday, former Tri-City American defenseman Brandon Carlo was a plus-1 on the ice for the Bruins, with four blocks and five hits.

In Saturday’s 3-1 win over Carolina, Carlo was again a plus-1 on the ice, with three hits and one shot on goal.

▪ A quick note on Hanford High wrestling coach Dom Duncan and his family.

Duncan, his wife Kari and their three boys went on their annual summer vacation recently, only to find out their house caught on fire while they were gone.

The Duncans were displaced and the family lost of lot of their personal items.

Lisa Vines started a GoFundMe account this past week to help the Duncan family, and according to Vines, Hanford High started an account at Gesa to help.

The Duncan family is dedicated to sports and kids, and they could use some help getting back on their feet.

▪ The Oregon School Activities Association, Oregon’s state governing high school sports body, announced Aug. 5 that all fall sports were being moved to the spring.

The move follows suit with what the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association did last month, as state’s are trying to buy time with the coronavirus.

Like the WIAA, the OSAA will begin prep sports with winter sports of basketball and wrestling starting Dec. 28 and running until March 7.

That’ll be followed by cross country, football, soccer and volleyball — set form Feb. 22 to early May. And all spring sports will follow from April 19 to June 27.

This story was originally published August 16, 2020 at 1:25 PM.