ELLENSBURG — The 2022 North Washington Cal Ripken State Tournament is being held in Ellensburg through the weekend, with teams from Ephrata and Moses Lake making the trip.

The tournament serves as a jumping off point for teams to make the World Series, held in various states across the country.

“We’re here with the opportunity to represent Moses Lake for the state tournament,” Moses Lake 10U head coach Steve Keller said. “We have an opportunity to go to the World Series because of what we did as 9-year-olds last year, winning regionals.”

Keller was referring to the regional win that the 9U Moses Lake All Star team had last summer in Meridian, Idaho, which automatically qualified them for the 10U Babe Ruth World Series, which takes place next month in Indiana.

“Our team gets a chance to win the state championship and go to the World Series, but we don’t get to try for the regionals,” Keller said.

The 10U Ephrata team nearly never was, until head coach Tyler LaPlant stepped in to form the team. This is the first time that the team has played together in a tournament atmosphere, as tryouts were held in early June.

“We weren’t going to have a team, but I heard about that and I was like, ‘We got to have an Ephrata team that’s 10 years old play in the tournament,’” LaPlant said.

Coming into the tournament, head coaches from 10U Moses Lake and Ephrata had some advice to prepare their teams.

“Remember what we practiced, situational awareness and to have fun,” LaPlant said he told his players before their first game.

Keller shared similar thoughts with his players.

“We always try to say ‘Who do we play for?’” Keller said, “And they play for the boys. I want them to play for their 13 guys. When they’re taking pitches, when they’re in the on-deck circle, are they working hard for the guy in front of them and the guy behind them?”

The tournament environment has teams set up in a round robin the first two days before a single-elimination tournament on Saturday.

“It’s gotta be fun,” Keller said of the feelings in the dugout during games. “We want to make it fun; we want to make it focused. There is a lot of fun in doing your job well, and there is a lot of fun in being ready for this pitch.”

The 10U Ephrata and Moses Lake teams faced off in their first match of the round robin, with Moses Lake taking a 26-0 victory.

“It feels good,” Keller said of the first win of the tournament. “Unfortunately, it’s over. So, it’s up to us to recreate that mentality in the second game.”

LaPlant said that this was the team’s first tournament game together, and that they look to learn from this experience.

“It’s our first tournament game, it’s our first time playing a baseball game together,” the Ephrata 10U coach said. “We weren’t able to get any other local teams to play us, so (it’s a) whole different set of rules.”

Moses Lake has two 9U teams and a 10U, an 11U and a 12U team as well as the 10U World Series team playing at the Cal Ripken State Tournament. Ephrata sent 9U-12U All Star teams to Ellensburg as well as the 12U Columbia Basin Riverdogs.

Ian Bivona may be reached at [email protected].