On the verge

Murrayhill’s Major all-stars are just two wins away from a trip to the Little League World Series

By Miles Vance

The Beaverton Valley Times, Aug 10, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

AL CUIZON / For the Times

DEREK DOES IT — Murrayhill Little League pitcher Derek Keller pitched three scoreless innings to beat Laramie Little League 12-1 during the Little League Western Regional Tournament at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, Calif., on Monday.

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Rollin’, rollin’, rollin.

Murrayhill is rollin’, and rollin’ — the Little League Majors all-star baseball team fervently hopes — all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.

While there are big games ahead and big challenges yet to face, the Murrayhill team of 11-12 year-olds is looking very good indeed at the Northwest Regional Tournament. Murrayhill has won its first four games at the tournament, the final stepping stone to the Little League World Series, is the lone unbeaten team in the six-team field and will play a semifinal contest at 8 p.m. Friday for a berth in the tournament championship at 7 p.m. Sunday.

“We’ve been getting good pitching, great defense and the kids have been hitting the heck out of the ball,” said Murrayhill manager Jeff Keller, whose team will play its semifinal at 8 p.m. Friday. The tournament championship is set for 7 p.m. Sunday.

Needless to say, the chance to win a berth in the Little League World Series, set for Aug. 18-27, is foremost in all the Murrayhill players’ minds.

“Oh yeah. When we’re all sitting around in our barracks, we’ve all been talking about it,” said pitcher/shortstop Derek Keller. “We’ve al been talking about the World Series and how cool it would be to get there.”

“We’re pretty excited,” added Miguel Rivera. “But we know we’ve just got to keep concentrating on our games.”

“Our team is very confident. We’re pumped up,” added pitcher/first baseman Jace Fry.

The team is still two wins — two very big, very tough wins — away from the Series, but so far, no one else at regionals has been nearly as good.

Murrayhill 6, Montana 3

Montana gave Murrayhill its toughest game of the tournament to date in their Tuesday pool play finale, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“We needed to play a tough game,” Jeff Keller said. “We’d played three pretty easy games before that, but in this one we had to battle and that was good.”

Also good was Fry, who won his second game of the tournament with a three-hit, 11-strikeout gem only offset by six walks.

“I was kind of tired because it was an early game and the ump’s strike zone kind of moved around, but it was OK,” Fry said. “Our defense is great so I wasn’t worried about trying to strike people out.”

Offensively, Murrayhill scored twice in the first inning on delayed steals, Fry coming home with the first run and Derek Keller with the second. Montana answered with one run on three walks and a wild pitch in its half of the first, but Murrayhill tacked on two more in the second. Derek Keller knocked in Bryan Domogalla with the first of those and Trevor Nix scored the second on Sam Albert’s single up the middle.

Fry hit his stride after that first inning, by the way, striking out eight straight batters from the second through the fourth innings. And in the fourth, Fry singled and scored on an Albert hit and Derek Keller (who’d reached on an error) came home on Devon DeJardin’s single.

For the game, Albert went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, and Fry, Keller and Toma Matisoff each went 2-for-3.

Murrayhill 12, Wyoming 1

Murrayhill left nothing to chance in its third pool play contest on Monday, grabbing a 2-0 lead on Derek Keller’s two-run homer in the top of the first, adding four runs in the second and five in the third before ending the contest after 4-1/2 innings against Laramie Little League.

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