Redmond SunWest win Northwest Regionals

After five days of play, the Northwest Regional Baseball Tournament finally crowned a champion Tuesday night. At the end of a back-and-forth game at Legion Field to end the tournament, the Redmond SunWest of Oregon emerged as the regionals champion with an 8-6 win over the Service Cougars of Alaska.

"Anytime you win your last game of the season, it's pretty incredible," Redmond head coach Marc Horner said about winning the regional championship. "I'm super proud of these guys as it's been a long season."

In the bottom of the first inning, the SunWest struck first. With a runner on base, Aiden Gebhard hit a double to center field to drive in the run for the 1-0 lead. But in the top of the second, the Cougars scored on a sacrifice fly to tie the game 1-1.

The Cougars took momentum in the top of the third. A Redmond error allowed a Cougar to score to give Service a 2-1 lead. Another error later in the inning allowed another runner to score to push the lead to 3-1. Landon Martindale capped off the inning with a single to right to drive in two runs to extend the lead to 5-1.

But the SunWest slowly climbed their way back into the game. In the bottom of the third, Gebhard hit a single to center to drive in a run to cut the deficit to 5-2. Then in the bottom of the fifth, a Service error allowed a runner to score to further cut into the deficit.

The SunWest stayed hot in the bottom of the fifth. With the bases loaded, a walk drove in a run to cut the deficit to one. Wyatt Horner then hit a double to center to drive in a pair of runs to give Redmond a 6-5 lead.

"We just knew we had to come out and chip away," Marc Horner said about the comeback. "Once we got to the top of our lineup and we got some guys in the middle that are young, we had some clutch performers."

The Cougars responded in the top of the sixth. With a runner on, Hunter Christian hit a double to center to drive in the run to tie the game. But the SunWest retook the lead in the bottom of the sixth. First, an error allowed a Redmond runner to score to take the lead. A wild pitch then allowed another runner to score to extend the lead to 8-6. The SunWest then closed it out in the top of the seventh to secure the regional title.

After the game, Gebhard was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. At the plate, he went 8-18 for the SunWest, including two big hits in the championship game. He also went 2-0 on the mound for the SunWest.

The victory in the championship game concluded an impressive run for the Redmond SunWest at the Northwest Regionals. The SunWest opened the tournament with a 2-1 loss to the Powell Pioneers. But the SunWest won four straight elimination games just to make it to the championship. While they could have folded earlier in the tournament, coach Horner knew his team would not give in so easily.

"There's never any doubt or quitting. We just try to win every inning and control what we can control," Horner said. "There's never an ounce of doubt in the dugout. There's emotions in this and that, but there's never any trepidation that somebody is going to fail."

The championship game wraps up a great weekend of baseball at Legion Field. Despite weather delays, all 15 games were played as teams from Montana, Oregon, Alaska, Wyoming, Idaho and Utah competed for the regional title. As the coach of one of the teams that came from out of state to compete at Legion Field, Horner said he believes the Havre Northstars and the Hi-Line did a great job hosting the tournament.

"Havre and its community were really awesome," Horner said. "It adds to it when you have the support that you've never had in the past and they came and they treated us right so they run a class act here."

Redmond 8, Service 6

SER 0 1 4 0 0 1 0 - 6 6 3

RED 1 0 1 0 4 2 X - 8 8 1