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On Sunday, July 12, the local Lower Columbia 9U All-Star baseball team showed that no task is too big and that money doesn’t always buy success. Behind a two-run fifth inning and clean defense the local youth all-star team consisting of players from Astoria, Seaside, Warrenton and Ilwaco, routed powerhouse West Linn to take the state title, 11-9 in Gresham.
“This win shows how strong these boys are mentally,” head coach Adam Murray said. “They beat us 18-4 just the day before, so for us to come back and beat them really showed the boys how important the mental side is. The boys knew they made some mental mistakes and bounced back.”
The loss for West Linn stunned everyone as the 6A powerhouse looked to be on the verge of sweeping every other division. According to Murray, the West Linn Green 9U players were shocked.
“I talked with a few coaches and they definitely were overconfident going into the game,” Murray said. “West Linn boys were very upset that they lost.”
The strategy for Lower Columbia in the championship game was to play aggressively and put pressure on West Linn. In their 18-4 loss, Lower Columbia made five errors to only one for West Linn, but in the rematch, Lower Columbia had one error and West Linn had three. The Lower Columbia All-Stars also out hit West Linn 12-11 in their Sunday victory.
The Lower Columbia All-Stars is a team made up of the best players from a certain age group. To start the process, each coach from the respective Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth League will nominate a couple of players from their own team. After the nominations are in, the coaches will vote to form a team. Due to how small Clatsop County and Pacific County, Washington are, the teams will usually combine players from both states.
For the 2026 state winning Lower Columbia team there was one player from Ilwaco, five from Astoria, five from Warrenton and one from Seaside. Unlike every other team in their state bracket, the Lower Columbia all-stars had only been together for a couple of months.
“Most of the other teams we played had been together for at least a year,” Murray said. “I like having a combined team because you are going to have different coaches join each other and we can really mess the styles together.”
In order to win state, the all-stars had to survive a grueling stretch of six games in three days. Along with playing powerhouse West Linn, the local boys had to defeat Sandy, Gresham and Newberg. Overall, the all-stars finished 5-1 with their only loss being the 18-4 one to West Linn. The all-stars defeated Newberg, 23-2, in game one. Then, they defeated Gresham, 21-14; defeated Sandy, 26-5; lost to West Linn, 18-4; beat Gresham, 12-7; and then won 11-9 over West Linn in the title game.
Next up for the all-stars will be regionals starting on Wednesday, July 22. The regionals will be played in Meridian, Idaho and will feature teams from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The PNW Cal Ripken Babe Ruth Regional Tournament will feature eight total teams and a bracket-style format. The eight teams will be divided into two brackets of four where they have something called pool play. Two games will be played on both Thursday and Friday, then the top teams from those games will play each other. In Lower Columbia’s bracket they have the Kennewick Americans, from Kennewick, Washington, the Willamette Valley all-stars and a team from Nampa, Idaho. The American bracket consists of Wenatchee All-Stars, Bozeman Bucks, Black Hills, Washington and the host team, Meridian. These eight teams will be battling to keep their hopes of a Little League World Series bid alive. The winner will go on to nationals, which is the final step before Little League World Series qualification.
“My motto as a coach has always been to keep it small and local,” Murray said. “This team shows how important the Babe Ruth league truly is. With the Junior Baseball Organization (JBO) and travel baseball taking over in Oregon this result shows that local rec leagues still matter. We play local players and the fact we are going to regionals is really cool.”
Lower Columbia 9U All-Stars will begin the regional tournament at 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 23 with a game against the Kennewick American All-Stars. That game will be available to watch on the streaming app Gamechanger.
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“This win shows how strong these boys are mentally,” head coach Adam Murray said. “They beat us 18-4 just the day before, so for us to come back and beat them really showed the boys how important the mental side is. The boys knew they made some mental mistakes and bounced back.”
The loss for West Linn stunned everyone as the 6A powerhouse looked to be on the verge of sweeping every other division. According to Murray, the West Linn Green 9U players were shocked.
“I talked with a few coaches and they definitely were overconfident going into the game,” Murray said. “West Linn boys were very upset that they lost.”
The strategy for Lower Columbia in the championship game was to play aggressively and put pressure on West Linn. In their 18-4 loss, Lower Columbia made five errors to only one for West Linn, but in the rematch, Lower Columbia had one error and West Linn had three. The Lower Columbia All-Stars also out hit West Linn 12-11 in their Sunday victory.
The Lower Columbia All-Stars is a team made up of the best players from a certain age group. To start the process, each coach from the respective Cal Ripken or Babe Ruth League will nominate a couple of players from their own team. After the nominations are in, the coaches will vote to form a team. Due to how small Clatsop County and Pacific County, Washington are, the teams will usually combine players from both states.
For the 2026 state winning Lower Columbia team there was one player from Ilwaco, five from Astoria, five from Warrenton and one from Seaside. Unlike every other team in their state bracket, the Lower Columbia all-stars had only been together for a couple of months.
“Most of the other teams we played had been together for at least a year,” Murray said. “I like having a combined team because you are going to have different coaches join each other and we can really mess the styles together.”
In order to win state, the all-stars had to survive a grueling stretch of six games in three days. Along with playing powerhouse West Linn, the local boys had to defeat Sandy, Gresham and Newberg. Overall, the all-stars finished 5-1 with their only loss being the 18-4 one to West Linn. The all-stars defeated Newberg, 23-2, in game one. Then, they defeated Gresham, 21-14; defeated Sandy, 26-5; lost to West Linn, 18-4; beat Gresham, 12-7; and then won 11-9 over West Linn in the title game.
Next up for the all-stars will be regionals starting on Wednesday, July 22. The regionals will be played in Meridian, Idaho and will feature teams from Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana. The PNW Cal Ripken Babe Ruth Regional Tournament will feature eight total teams and a bracket-style format. The eight teams will be divided into two brackets of four where they have something called pool play. Two games will be played on both Thursday and Friday, then the top teams from those games will play each other. In Lower Columbia’s bracket they have the Kennewick Americans, from Kennewick, Washington, the Willamette Valley all-stars and a team from Nampa, Idaho. The American bracket consists of Wenatchee All-Stars, Bozeman Bucks, Black Hills, Washington and the host team, Meridian. These eight teams will be battling to keep their hopes of a Little League World Series bid alive. The winner will go on to nationals, which is the final step before Little League World Series qualification.
“My motto as a coach has always been to keep it small and local,” Murray said. “This team shows how important the Babe Ruth league truly is. With the Junior Baseball Organization (JBO) and travel baseball taking over in Oregon this result shows that local rec leagues still matter. We play local players and the fact we are going to regionals is really cool.”
Lower Columbia 9U All-Stars will begin the regional tournament at 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 23 with a game against the Kennewick American All-Stars. That game will be available to watch on the streaming app Gamechanger.
Continue reading...
