Issaquah earns title-round berth in state 8-10 Little League

Issaquah beats Mill Creek to stay unbeaten in state Little League

Sunday: Noon — Larch Mountain vs. West Valley (loser out).

Monday: 5 p.m. — Mill Creek vs. winner Larch Mountain-West Valley (winner to title round; loser out).

Tuesday: 5 p.m. — Issaquah vs. winner of Monday game (first game of title round. Second game to follow if necessary).

Issaquah iced Mill Creek’s blazing bats to earn the unbeaten title-round berth in the Washington State 8-10 Little League Baseball Tournament.

Hudson Carvalho and Mason Uchimura combined on a three-hitter and Issaquah scored twice in the fifth to edge Mill Creek, 4-2, in a taut winners bracket final Saturday at Aberdeen’s Failor Field.

Earlier in the day, West Valley of Yakima stayed alive in the losers bracket by outslugging South Kitsap Western of Port Orchard, 19-8.

The last unbeaten team in the double-elimination tournament, Issaquah will be idle until Tuesday’s title round. The Eastern King County team can wrap up the title with a victory at 5 p.m. A loss would force a winner-take-all second championship game at approximately 7:15 p.m.

Issaquah’s opponent will be determined Monday night, when Mill Creek faces the survivor of today’s Larch Mountain-West Valley loser-out contest.

Issaquah 4, Mill Creek 2

Mill Creek hadn’t been previously extended in the tournament, outscoring its first three opponents by a combined 33-4.

Issaquah starter Carvalho, however, struck out eight of the first nine batters and took a perfect game and a 2-0 lead into the fifth.

Sam Craig, however, spoiled the perfecto with a leadoff single. After Lucas Poindexter bunted into a force at second, Ryan Whitley doubled to left to score Poindexter.

Pinch-hitter Timmy Thomas, after fouling off a quartet of two-strike pitches, looped a two-out single to left that tied it. That finished Carvalho, who had reached his 75-pitch limit. Due to Little League rest requirements, Carvalho will be ineligible for mound duty in the title round.

Issaquah immediately answered in its half of the fifth against Mill Creek’s Lou Berg, who had allowed only one hit in a 3 2/3-inning relief stint.

After Carvalho led off the inning by beating out a grounder to deep short, Ryan Boehm sent a slicing drive that kicked away from the diving left fielder for a run-scoring triple that gave Issaquah a 3-2 lead. A two-out infield error — the only miscue in an extremely well-played game — plated Boehm with an insurance run.

Uchimura worked a perfect sixth to nail down the triumph.

Boehm was the only player on either team with two hits.

West Valley 19, S. Kitsap Western 8

Sparked by an exceptionally productive top of the lineup, West Valley scored in every inning to eliminate South Kitsap Western.

Leadoff batter Landen Birley opened the game with a home run and finished with three hits and three RBIs. Connor Speer and Parker Mills, the next two in West Valley’s batting order, each delivered four hits. Mills drove in four runs and Speer three.

The Yakima club pounded out 17 hits, but wasn’t entirely comfortable until a seven-run top of the sixth sealed the outcome.

South Kitsap Western collected 11 hits of its own. Nolan Bayne contributed two hits and two RBIs for the Port Orchard team.