POULSBO — It was not exactly the way the North Kitsap Babe Ruth 15-year-old All Stars expected to earn a state berth.

In the championship game, North Kitsap’s Kelly Wells took a large lead off third base and waited for the pitch from Sequim’s ace Wyatt Short at 5-5 in the sixth inning.

But Short had no intention of throwing a pitch, and flipped around to attempt to pick-off Wells — but he was long gone. And in the heat of the action, Sequim third baseman Jarred Bridges overthrew the ball to home by such a distance that if the backstop had not been there, it would have landed on the outfield of the Little League game playing on an adjacent field.

After three quick outs in the top of the seventh, it was game over — and NK had earned a spot in Moses Lake at state. And in three district games, North Kitsap had gone down at the start of each, only to charge back and take the win.

“It’s crazy,” said NKBR 15’s manager Jack Nannery. “They haven’t been in a game yet when they weren’t behind.”

Sunday’s championship contest with Sequim was no different. To begin the game, Short pounded a pitch from NK’s Josh Corso that just missed the monstrous right field fence and barely cleared the center field fence for a three-run shot. In the second inning, North Kitsap combined for five errors — mostly on bobbled in-field ground balls — and Sequim took two more runs to go up 5-1.

But North Kitsap roared back, inning by inning. Kyle Loescher scored in the bottom of the first off of a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice; Mychal Harris scored off a single and then a wild-pitch while on third base in the second. Derek Goodall drove in Loescher in the third on a double and Goodall also scored off another double by Harris to put North Kitsap down by only one run.

In the top of the fifth, JonLuc Klinker hit a two-out single that paved the way for a Loescher RBI double to tie the game.

An errorless NK defense after the second inning kept Sequim from scoring any additional runs, setting the stage for Wells’ entrance in the game as a pitcher.

“I felt strong before the game,” Wells said. “My curve (balls) weren’t working that well, but my fastball was going well.”

In the bottom of the sixth, Wells advanced to third base with a single, a stolen base and an overthrow.

On the squeeze play, Wells was going by the mantra of manager Nannery — if you’re going to go, go all the way.

“Once you commit to it, you don’t hesitate,” Nannery said. “And putting pressure on the (Sequim) defense paid off.”

The team has about one more week of practice before its appearance in Moses Lake for state. Nannery said he is confident the team can do well there.

“We’ll be competitive and we’ll hold our own,” he said. “They’re playing solid team baseball — and they believe in themselves.”

“We’ve just got to keep our bats going,” Corso said. “We need to practice hard and keep the balls down (pitching).”