Pacific Little League’s hitters made sure that the team lived to play another day.

Pacific connected on key hit after key hit, including a pair of home runs, to upend host West Seattle 14-4 in a loser-out Washington State Little League tournament game Thursday night at the Bar-S fields in Seattle.

Pacific Little League takes on North Bothell at 6 p.m., Friday, July 18 at the Bar S fields. The winner of Friday’s game will face Federal Way, who beat North Bothell 16-6 earlier in the day, on Saturday.

“They played as a team,” said coach Robley Corsi said of his players. “We executed when we needed to. We made the plays that we needed to for the most part.”

But the offense was where Pacific won Friday’s game.  The team combined for 18 hits.

“We hit the ball when we needed to,” Corsi said. “That was the difference in the game right there.”

Karsen Tjarneberg drove in two runs with a single and another run scored on a wild pitch as Pacific took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning.

West Seattle rallied for two runs in the bottom of the inning. Pacific’s Ben Grant then drove in a run in the second with a single.

After a scoreless third inning, Pacific scored five runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth inning and the game was called due to the 10-run mercy rule.

In the fourth, Grant hit a single to drive in a run and Tyler Durbin followed with a two-run home run to give Pacific a 7-2 advantage. Tjarneberg later connected on a two-run single to boost Pacific’s lead to 9-2.

West Seattle scored one run in the fourth. In the top of the fifth, Pacific’s Grant and Ian Michael each drove in a run with a single. The big blow was Logan Kruse’s three-run home run.

After scoring one run in the fifth, West Seattle loaded the bases but the game ended when after a wild pitch, the West Seattle runner at third was tagged out trying to score.

Corsi again used several pitchers and was able to limit their pitch counts.

“We’re pitching by committee and we’re asking the kids to go out and work as a team,” Corsi said. “They’re doing their job.”

A win on Friday would set up a rematch with Federal Way, which beat Pacific 13-7.

After Thursday’s win, Corsi kept his comments to the players short.

“I’m so proud of you guys,” Corsi told the team.

– By David Pan