5/14/25

Bellevue Wolverines – 4/11/3
Inglemoor Vikings –     5/6/0

(Bellevue, WA) The KingCo 3A Baseball Tournament has been a good one, and it saw the top two seeds pinned against each other with a trip to State on the line and a league title. The two-seed Bellevue Wolverines advanced to the Championship Game with a 10-5 win over Liberty (Renton) on Saturday, while the one-seed Inglemoor Vikings used defense to get by Sammamish, 5-1. It was also the third meeting between the two squads, with each team winning a game against the other in the regular season.

Bellevue’s Dylan Leaird singled to lead off the game, then Brody Gayte doubled with one out. Jackson Rankin knocked in the first run of the game with an RBI single. Ellis Oeltjen followed up with an RBI of his own to make it 2-0. Eli Auten was walked with the bases loaded and two outs to make it a 3-0 lead for the Wolverines. Inglemoor responded in the bottom of the first with a walk from Jeffry Myhre and Braeden Howe. Benjamin Koppes got on with a fielder’s choice, and Cooper Richter got the Vikings on the board with a sacrifice flyout to left field that scored Myhre. Connor Dowell got on with an error, and Ben Barnes got an RBI single to make it a 3-2 lead for Bellevue. Carter Madigan singled to load up the bases with two outs. Drew Snider singled to drive in Dowell, but Barnes was thrown out at home as the game was tied 3-3 after a wild first inning.

The two sides were held scoreless in the second inning, but in the third, the bats got going again. Bellevue led off the inning with Andrew Van Appledorn getting on with a single. After a pair of outs, Jessie Gonzalez knocked in Van Appledorn with an RBI single to give Bellevue a 4-3 lead. Gonzalez was caught trying to steal second base to end the top of the third. In the bottom of the third, Inglemoor’s Benjamin Koppes got on with a walk. Cooper Richter moved him over and got on himself after an error. Connor Dowell knocked in Koppes with a fielder’s choice to tie the game at 4-4.

Inglemoor brought in Brody Ledger from the bullpen in the top of the third, but he only threw one pitch before Gonzalez was caught stealing. Ledger had back-to-back 1-2-3 innings with three strikeouts combined in the fourth and fifth innings. Inglemoor’s Cooper Ricther doubled in the bottom of the fifth inning, but a pair of flyouts left him stranded at second. Each team got a baserunner on in the sixth inning, but a combination of great pitching and great defense kept the inning scoreless, as the 4-4 tie went into the seventh.

In the seventh inning, Ledger started off with a strikeout, but Brody Gayte got on with a single. Gayte stole second, but Ledger got his sixth strikeout of the game, striking out Jackson Rankin and forced Ellis Oeltjen to fly out to right to end the top half of the inning. Braeden Howe started the bottom of the seventh by getting hit by a pitch. Benjamin Koppes drew a walk, and Cooper Richter moved them both over on a fielder’s choice. Connor Dowell drew a walk to load up the bases with only one out. Ellis Oeltjen came in during the seventh and forced another full count against Ben Barnes. Oeltjen struck him out looking for the second out of the inning. Carter Madigan was up next, and that at bat also was a full count. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Oeltjen struck him out looking to send the game to the eighth inning.

Bellevue flew out three times in the top of the eighth and in the bottom of the inning, Drew Snider drew a leadoff walk and was moved around to third, but the Wolverines’ defense again made timely plays to keep the game going. In the top of the ninth, Jessie Gonzalez got on with another single, and two batters later, Greyson Arnold singled also to put runners on the corners with one out. Ledger struck out back-to-back batters for his seventh and eighth strikeouts of the game to get out of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Koppes drew another walk, and Cooper Richter was intentionally walked after a wild pitch moved Koppes over to second. Oeltjen got back-to-back strikeouts after Koppes got to third and Ricther was up at second. After a hit by pitch, the bases were loaded again for Inglemoor with two outs, but Oeltjen got another clutch strikeout to send the thrilling Championship Game to the tenth inning.

Oeltjen singled to lead off the top of the tenth, and Brandon Powell singled with one out to put runners on the corners again. Cooper Richter came in to pitch in the tenth, and he struck out Eli Auten and got Jessie Gonzalez to ground out to end top half of the inning. In the bottom of the inning, Dylan Clark got on with a single, and Rocco Suarez was brought in to run for him. Suarez stole second base, and Jeffry Myrhe drew a walk. Braeden Howe bunted with no outs, but Oeltjen made a diving catch coming off the mound for the first out. Oeltjen tried to throw out Myhre at first, but his throw went wide, allowing Suarez to take third. That brought up Koppes and Myhre stole second base with ease to make it runners at second and third with only one out. With a full count, Koppes hit a fly ball to left, which was caught by Max Brender. Suarez took off from third as soon as Brender caught it, and Brender fired the ball to Gayte, who was catching, but Suarez slid in safely to send Inglemoor to State and win the KingCo 3A Championship, 5-4 in 10 innings.

With the win, Inglemoor has secured a spot in the State Tournament for the first time since 2019, while winning the KingCo 3A Championship in exhilarating fashion. Bellevue’s season isn’t over, as the Wolverines will head to a winner to state, loser out game against Liberty on Friday at 4 PM, a game that will be on the Eli Sports Network.

Our Thorbeckes Game MVP was a tie between two Inglemoor Vikings, Benjamin Koppes and Brody Ledger. Koppes got on four times, scored twice, made it to at least second base all four times he reached base, and had the walkoff sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run. Ledger was phenomenal on the mound, going 6 1/3 innings, giving up only three hits, allowing no runs to come home, and he struck out eight batters. Only four batters got on base while Ledger was on the mound.

Click here to watch the full game replay (Subscription Required).

Game Highlights

Inglemoor’s Rocco Suarez Scores The Game-Winning Run On A Walkoff Sacrifice Fly

Bellevue’s Ellis Oeltjen Gets Clutch Strikeout To Send The Game To Extra Innings

Inglemoor’s Brody Ledger Gets His Eighth Strikeout Of The Game

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