The Central Whidbey junior baseball (13/14) team kept its hopes of repeating as state champions alive by out-slugging Sedro-Woolley 13-12 in eight innings in a loser-out game in the district tournament at Skagit Valley College Thursday, June 30.

CWLL lost a 4-3 heartbreaker to South Skagit in the tournament opener Wednesday.

After four hours of play and nearing 1 a.m., Josh Bayne drilled a base hit with runners at second and third in the top of the eighth inning to produce the winning runs against Sedro-Woolley.

CWLL coach Ramon Villaflor said his team received clutch performances from Cyrus Reyes, Aaron Wright, Sebastian Davis and Aaron Trumbull.

Villaflor lauded Trumbull’s pitching the second half of the game, and said one of the game’s offensive highlights was Aaron Curtin’s squeeze bunt in the seventh.

Villaflor said, “Heart is truly the best way of describing what this team showed tonight.”

In the loss to South Skagit, Central Whidbey carried a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh but let the game slip away.

South Skagit had only four hits in the game, but two came to start the seventh. An error by Coupeville kept the inning alive and allowed Skagit to score two unearned runs.

Wade Schaef went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI.

Central and North Whidbey play Friday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m. in a loser-out game at SVC.

Central Whidbey, 14-1 during the regular season, will need to win five games in four days to win the district title.