LEWISTON – July 16, 2005 – The West Branch Little League all-stars had already proven they were a good baseball team.

The only question was how they would respond to being challenged by a team as good as they were.

After beating Traverse City West 10-3 to win the 11-12 year-old District 8 title and earn a trip to the state tournament in Wyoming next week, the West Branch squad proved they were capable of answering the challenge.

The game wasn’t nearly as lopsided as the final score indicated, as WB scored six runs in the top of the sixth inning to break open a tense, well-played contest.

“This was our first true test,” said WB manager Terry Zettel. “The kids came through with hits when we needed them and played solid defense.”

It looked in the opening innings as though West Branch might walk away with an easy win as TC West pitcher Brandon Dalzell walked five batters and hit one in the first two frames. West Branch held a 4-1 lead after two, but left the bases loaded in both innings, and left two more on in the third.

West Branch pitcher Anthony Zettel started strong with five strikeouts in the first two innings, but a pair of wild pitches brought home two runs in the third to make it 4-3.

From there on it was a war of nerves, at which West Branch finally prevailed.

In the fourth, TC West’s Ben Casciano led off with a single and reached third with one out, but Zettel picked up a strikeout and forced groundout to end the threat.

TC West led off the fifth with a pair of singles, but Zettel forced a pop-out to himself and struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning. While pitching to Collin Richards, Zettel had a pitch get away from him. Catcher Chris Hebert ran down the wild pitch and whipped a throw to third baseman Mike Godfrey in time to nail the runner attempting to advance from second base, ending the inning.

“He’s been doing that to me all season,” Terry Zettel said of Anthony’s penchant for pitching out of trouble. “It’s enough to give me a heart attack. But these are good kids who really showed they could step it up.”

The dam finally broke for West Branch in the sixth. An error and two walks loaded the bases with one out, but TC West forced out a runner at home on Jason Middleton’s grounder to keep it at 4-3 with two outs. But Zettel followed with a bases loaded walk, Michael Horn singled in a run, a walk to Drew Watchorn forced home another run, Zettel scored on an error and John Hughes’ two-run single capped the scoring.

West Branch's bid for its first state championship begins July 21 at Pinery Park in Wyoming. Zettel noted that every player on the 11-man squad had contributed to the team’s unbeaten run through the district tournament.

“We’ve had kids come through with a home run when they’ve never hit one before,” he said. “Or someone will make a diving catch, or steals a base and scores a big run.

“Now we get to keep playing. We’ll see if my heart survives it.”