Camas all-stars win district title at Forest Home Park

Caden Wengler delivered a sacrifice fly and Kolby Broadbent hit a baseball out of Forest Home Park and on to Sixth Street.

This was all Camas needed to beat Evergreen 2-0 for the district championship Monday. Pitchers Michael Quintana and Josh Mansur combined for a two-hitter. Quintana racked up 10 strikeouts in five innings and Mansur struck out the side in the sixth.

“That’s the cherry on top, being able to play in front of our home crowd and on our home field,” said manager Jeff Mansur. “It’s kind of emotional because this is the last game they will ever play on this field. It’s a good way to go out.”

The Camas 11- to 12-year-old all-stars are Blake Asciutto, Broadbent, Jackson Day, Elijah Ferres, Tyler Forner, Jackson Gibbs, Dante Humble, Christian Knuth, Josh Mansur, Drew Ott, Quintana, Tayler Shega and Wengler. Jeff Mansur coaches the team along with his father, Paul, and Dave Ferres.

Camas faces West Seattle Saturday, at 1 p.m., in the first round of the state tournament at Bar S Play Field, in Seattle.

“It’s a good opportunity for us to go up there and beat them on their home field,” Mansur said. “I really believe we have the team that can win state. Baseball is a funny game. If we can play to the best of our ability, we have just as great a chance as anybody.”

Mansur said these boys have been playing baseball together for six to seven years. Camas finished in fourth place at state last year. The boys say their goal is to win it all this time around.

“Work hard and don’t let up. We still got more to do,” Broadbent said. “We got to believe.”

Broadbent hit a few home runs in the district tournament. He dedicated them to his teammates, coaches and to Camas Little League.

Camas earned a spot in the championship bracket by beating Central Vancouver 24-2 July 1, Cascade 13-0 Thursday and Fort Vancouver 9-3 Saturday. Camas then defeated Columbia 14-1 in the semifinals Sunday.

Monday’s championship game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third inning. Humble had a lead off walk, advanced to second base on a wild pitch and reached third on a groundout by Gibbs. Wengler picked out a pitch he could handle to drove it into deep center field. Humble tagged up and scored on the sacrifice fly.

“In an important championship game like this, we need to take anything we can get,” Wengler said. “I’ll remember driving in that run, being in the moment and hearing the crowd cheering. There’s no better place to win than here on our home field.”