Local team goes national.

Byline: Paula Lincoln The Register-Guard

Willamette Valley nearly didn't field a 12-year-old Babe Ruth all-star team.

Just 12 kids - the minimum required to form a team - signed up for tryouts and there was no coach.

BABE RUTH

Enter the Allard brothers.

Longtime youth sports volunteers Jody and Jacky Allard - who hadn't coached a Babe Ruth team in years - went to the Babe Ruth All-Star coaches meeting in early June ready to volunteer to coach a 10-year-old team.

By the time they left, they were the coaches of a 12-year-old team whose season ultimately has been so successful they're on their way to the Cal Ripken World Series, which begins Friday in Aberdeen, Md. Willamette Valley (28-2-1) is scheduled to open Saturday at 10 a.m. EDT against Honolulu.

"Who woulda thunk? We almost didn't have a team," said manager Jody Allard, noting that traveling teams, the Kidsports season and other commitments reduced the number of available players. "But we didn't have to cut anybody, which we like."

"We truly didn't get all the talent base - a lot of kids didn't go out - but sometimes too much talent isn't always a good thing. We came out with a pretty good bunch of kids ... who've worked their butts off this summer," coach Jacky Allard said.

Willamette Valley cruised through the state tournament in Roseburg without giving up any runs and then won the nine-team Northwest Regional by beating the host team, Meridian, Idaho, 4-0 in the title game.

"We played a really tough team and had to get past them. We had to step up and play like we've never played before," said pitcher Will Swindling, a six-year veteran of Babe Ruth baseball.

"Everyone was expecting us to get to regionals but not really go all the way. It was pretty exciting when we won."

Swindling is a big part of Willamette Valley's success. Though just 12 years old, he will be competing in his second World Series. As a 9-year-old in 2002, he went to the 10-year-old World Series in Bakersfield, Calif., where his team lost 7-2 to Jacksonville, Fla., in the championship game.

Swindling, who had two hits in each of the final two games, moved up to the 12-year-old all-star team the following year. He's made a name for himself as a three-year starting pitcher who is considered by some to be among the best young pitchers in the nation.

"That's what everybody says," Jacky Allard said. "I hadn't seen him and I had people saying to me 'You got Will. Oh my God, have you seen him play?' I didn't realize how good he was. He should be playing varsity right now. He's that good. He conquers them all."

Allard coached Mike McCormick - the former Marist standout who was drafted in the fifth round by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and assigned to their Class A affiliate - when he was the same age.

"This kid's so much further ahead of where Mike was in the sixth grade as far as pitching and catching," Jacky Allard said.

"He's bigger. He throws harder. People call him a man-child."

Swindling, who throws a fastball, slider and changeup, typically allows no more than one hit a game while averaging 10 or 11 strikeouts a game (or every six innings).

"He throws 70-plus and hits the outside corner," Jody Allard said.

While acknowledging the strength of the pitching staff, which includes Elmira's Jake Britt and Eugene's Gus Craig, Swindling said the team isn't one-dimensional.

"Everyone hits the ball," said Swindling, who'll be a seventh-grader at Cal Young Middle School in the fall. "We get a lot of home runs and we're a quick team. The defense is also really good. The infield is great; we never have errors."

CAPTION(S):

Jody Allard (right) and his brother, Jacky, took the helm of a group of 12-year-old all-stars who went 28-2-1 this season and are off to a national tournament.