MERIDIAN, Idaho – Believe it or not, the best years of baseball on the North Coast may be yet to come.

That’s because the current group of 12-year-old Lower Columbia All-Stars will take their game all the way to the national level in two weeks, after winning the Pacific Northwest Region Cal Ripken tournament Sunday morning in Idaho.

Competing at the Major 60 level, the Lower Columbia All-Stars cruised through the competition at Settlers Park in Meridian, Idaho, finishing undefeated in the eight-team tournament.

The All-Stars capped four days of baseball with a 9-1 win over Valley View, Idaho (the host team) in Sunday’s championship game.

The team comprised of players from Astoria, Lewis & Clark, Knappa and Naselle will now head to Visalia, Calif., for the Cal Ripken 12-year-old World Series Tournament, Aug. 12-19.

“We are definitely peaking at the right time,” said Lower Columbia coach Pat O’Brien. “It was a team effort today. It was just amazing.”

The All-Stars excelled in all areas of the game Sunday – on the mound, in the field and at the plate.

“Fridtjof Fremstad pitched the first three innings and gave up nothing, and Ole Englund pitched the last three innings and gave up one,” O’Brien said. “They pitched incredible.

“I don’t know the stats on hitting, but I know that everybody contributed at the plate,” he added. “Kyle Strange (Naselle) hit a home run, Fritz had a triple, and we had a couple doubles in there. We had a lot of key hits. It was incredible.”

In the field, “Jason Miller (Knappa) had a couple key defensive plays,” said the coach. “He made a diving play at second and a diving catch in the outfield to save a couple runs today and yesterday. Overall, our defense was just flawless, pretty much.”

The Lower Columbia All-Stars faced very little opposition on their march to the championship.

Lower Columbia opened pool play Thursday with a 6-5 win over South Washington, followed by Friday victories over Idaho (17-2) and East Montana (6-0).

In Saturday’s championship bracket, the All-Stars defeated Ellensburg, Wash., 7-1 in the semifinals.

The highly-touted Ellensburg 12-year-olds had back-to-back North Washington championships to their credit, also winning last year’s 11U title.

The World Series will feature 10 Regional champions (from New England, the Middle Atlantic, Ohio Valley, Southeast, Midwest Plains, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest), along with the Central California State Champion, and the host team of Visalia.