MARYSVILLE — It’s been a great season for Marysville baseball as the Marysville Baseball Association’s 13u Hawks Select team finished up their season with not only a state championship victory, but also the first ever Washington State Sandy Koufax Super State Championship trophy.

“For the first time in 30-plus years of Sandy Koufax baseball, they decided to have the division champions play each other in a Super State Championship,” said coach Dave Wallace. There are two divisions, American and National. The Marysville select team plays in the American division and won the division championship on July 17 against the Northwest Bandits. At the same time, the Federal Way Knights were winning the National division championship, so the two teams went face to face on July 18 for the super state championship. Marysville beat the Knights with a 7-1 victory in the super state championship, the first in Washington history.

“This was an amazing group of kids,” said Wallace. “They were always genuinely happy for their teammates throughout the year. They are a great group of players.”

Steve Van Rensum is the head coach of the team and said he was proud of the way they played. “We’ve played well all year,” he said. “They have great pitchers and really good defense. They persevered.”

The team was undefeated in the state tournament, but had a tough game against Seattle Select Black, a team known for being pretty talented. “In the semi-finals, we were down 9-3 in the sixth inning against Seattle Select Black, which is kind of the cream of the crop,” said Wallace. “We scored six runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game. We gave up two more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, but in the top of the seventh we scored four additional runs. We shut them down in the bottom of the seventh and beat them 13-11. That was pretty much when I knew that we wouldn’t be stopped.”

Noah Wallace plays shortstop for the team and said that the players were trying to take the tournament one game at a time. “I was really focusing on one game at a time and getting the job done,” he said. “We had some tough opposition but we just had to focus every single time. It was a big accomplishment. We just played our hearts out and all our hard work went into it. It was like winning the world series for 13-year-olds. It’s a great feeling knowing you’re the best.”

Noah Wallace wanted to be sure to thank the coaching staff for assisting them in their success. “All of our coaches are really helpful,” he said. “Sometimes they are tough, but they need to be. We have the best coaching staff in the state.”

Trent Tinglestad, tournament MVP along with Collin Montez, also felt great after their victory. “I had a great feeling that we were going to win big,” he said. “We played really well all season. It was a great time. We did great. Our pitching was stellar, our defense was stellar and our hitting was amazing.”

Jason Hauck, the team manager, was proud of how the players performed during the tournament and all year. “The eight to nine months of work they put in was for that tournament. It was all for that moment, to win the state championship. I felt great for the guys I coach with and even more so for the kids. All the blood, sweat and tears you go through to get to that point. It was amazing.”