WALLA WALLA, WA – The 16U/18U Blue Mountain Classic was held June 21-22 at the Mill Creek Sports Plex. There were seven teams entered in the tournament, three 18U, three 16U and one 14U. In the seeding round held on Saturday all of the teams were put together in one bracket giving the lower class teams a chance to face off against the higher level teams. All of the coaches felt this was a great idea because they felt it could only help their younger players become better by playing upper level teams. The coaches from the Walla Walla Xtreme looked forward to playing the upper teams, as they are the 14U team and they have to play up in most of their tournaments this year. In their first three games on Saturday the Xtreme went 2-1. They lost their first game to the Idaho Diamond Bandits 3-2 but they won their next two against Spokane Knockouts 11-1 and U C Lightning 14-3. In their last game of the day the Xtreme faced off against Dave’s Food Mart, an 18U team. Both teams played tough but the game ended in a tie. With the tie the Xtreme headed into the 16U portion of the tournament with the number #1 seed. Dave’s Food Mart ended their first day with two straight wins over Coeur d’Alene Crush 5-0 and U C Lightning 18-3 and they tied the Xtreme in the 3rd game. Dave’s record was good enough for them to earn the number #1 seed in the 18U bracket. In the 16U single elimination bracket the Xtreme needed one win to advance to the championship and they did just that by beating the Spokane Knockouts 3-0 giving them the chance to play for the title. The team that would face the Xtreme was the Idaho Diamond Bandits who beat the Xtreme earlier in the tournament and it looked like it would be a tough championship game. The Bandits made it to the finals by going 2-1 the first day, beating the Xtreme 3-2, Palouse Express 6-4 and losing to the Crush 4-2. On Sunday the Bandits beat U C Lightning 3-1 to advance to the championship game. Once the game began both teams were playing solid defense and neither team was able to put any runs on the board, but late in the game the Xtreme took a 3-1 lead and never looked back to take home the championship.

In the 18U bracket Dave’s Food Mart had already advanced to the championship by earning the number #1 seed and just waited to see who they would play. That team was the Coeur d’Alene Crush. The Crush went 2-1 the first day by beating Palouse Express 8-0 and Idaho Diamond Bandits 4-2 before losing their last game against Dave’s Food Mart 5-0. The Crush needed one win on Sunday against the Palouse Express to get the chance to play for the championship. The Crush players came out on fire and demolished the Express 12-0 and the Crush got the chance to avenge their only loss of the tournament against Dave’s in the championship game. In the title game both teams came out fighting and it remained close throughout the game until the Crush was able to take the lead and hold on for a 7-5 win and took home the championship.