Federal Way National’s 10- and 11 year-old all-stars did it again, defending their championship from last year with another District 10 title.

It wasn’t without a little drama though.

After steamrolling into the championship round by beating South Hill, Soundview and Bonney Lake-Sumner, the squad lost to Auburn, forcing a winner-take-all second game. The Auburn team racked up eight runs in the first three innings of the initial contest, taking advantage of some iffy National defense. But with their backs against the wall, National’s defense stepped it up in game two.

After allowing five runs in the deciding game’s first two innings, National allowed just one hit and kept Auburn scoreless for the final four frames. Still, the team needed a little magic in the bottom of the sixth to clinch a berth in the state tournament. The wizardry started with a leadoff double from Braden Bedell, followed by throwing errors by Auburn that allowed Bedell to plate the tying run. With a raucous crowd, shifted momentum and the bases loaded with no outs, Jaiden Orchard delivered the knockout punch as he laced a line drive into the left-center gap. Kayla Johnson scored easily with her hands in the air to complete the walk-off win, finishing the game at 6-5.

The next stop for National is Clarkston, Washington, for the state tournament. National will play Greater Richland Little League (District 12) at 10 a.m. on July 23; Greater Richland knocked off Pasco in its own championship round.

The championship team is managed by Danny Graham and is assisted by Doug Orchard and Bill Bedell. The team’s players are R’Mani Adams, Isaiah Afework, Braden Bedell, Jack Bergstrom, Jonah Buchan, Brett Ellingson, Jack Erickson, Aidan Graham, Isaiah Henning, Kayla Johnson, Kenzo Kimura, Jayden Lee, Jaiden Orchard and Richie Osses-Watson.

The hunger of the 12 year-old little league all-stars for both National and Steel Lake has been on full display in their tournament, which started July 2 at Sunset Park in Auburn.

Steel Lake opened with a bye and awaited the winner of the Soundview versus South Hill game. South Hill advanced but was unable top Steel Lake. Through three innings it wasn’t looking good for Steel Lake, with South Hill flexing its muscles and scoring two home runs to take a 3-1 lead. That wasn’t enough to thwart a well-balanced Steel Lake attack that answered for four runs, led by Mason Sleeth and Isi Mojica with support from Drew De La Cruz, Jaden Herwick, Anthony Myers and Chase Cretti. That was all they needed — although Mojica did add another home run for insurance — as the pitching stifled South Hill’s hitters to the tune of 15 combined strikeouts in a game with 18 total outs.

For National, they beat Bonney Lake-Sumner and defending champion Auburn to set up a semifinal matchup with Steel Lake — a game that became an instant classic.

Both teams started the game in back-and-forth fashion that led to a 4-2 Steel Lake lead in the fourth inning. National’s Luke Dalrymple tried to take matters into his own hands by hitting a solo home run in the fifth and notching the game-tying base-knock with two outs in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at four and force extra innings. In the lone extra inning, it looked like Steel Lake would coast to victory after Cody Gaerttner roped a shot that plated two and Derek Butler knocked in another run for good measure — making it 7-4 Steel Lake headed into the bottom of the seventh.

Ayden Vega got things going for National and ended up scoring on a wild pitch to get to 7-5, and shortly thereafter Elijah Morales strode up to the plate with two runners on. With one swing of the bat the game was over: the ball sailed over the fence and National was walking off via Morales’ three-run blast with an 8-7 win and a trip to the district championship (at 6 p.m. on July 9) in hand.

Steel Lake now drops down to the bottom bracket and will play at 6 p.m. today, July 8, hoping for another crack at National.

The junior all-star softball District 10 champions, Steel Lake/Auburn/Soundview (“Riptide”), saw its run for a state title end at the hands of Columbia Little League from District 4. The Riptide started its run with a hard-fought offensive battle against Bainbridge, losing 13-11, meaning the girls would have to come up through the bottom part of the bracket. With that in mind, the squad fired back with more explosive offense, beating a combined team of Magnolia, North Central and Ballard little leagues 10-0, which included a perfect game tossed by Kiki Adams. All good things come to an end, however, and for the Riptide it was at the hands of Columbia, 4-3, a team that has now won three in a row in the bottom bracket after losing its opening game to Bellevue. Coincidentally, Bainbridge and Columbia — the Riptide’s two losses — will met July 6 for a chance at a trip to the championship game.

The Riptide were managed by Paul Thackeray and assisted by Shawn Frederick and Tabitha Browne. The team’s players were Kiana “Kiki” Adams, Lauren Angelot, Callie Arnott, Hailey Browne, Sydnie Hoag, Azaria Johnson, Kailey Kwong, Alyssa Lantagne, Alyssa Murray, Tabetha Norris, Charity Sevaaetasi and Katie Severson.

Juniors baseball ended with Steel Lake/Kent taking out National/Soundview, 11-5, for the district title. The team went down 3-2 after three frames but took the lead in the fourth and never looked back. Next up will be a trip to Vancouver, Washington, for a 9 a.m. game against North Kitsap American/North Kitsap National Little Leagues on July 16. North Kitsap didn’t exactly dominate in its two-game run to a district championship, winning 7-6 and 7-3 against a South Kitsap team.