POULSBO — When they fell into the losers’ bracket at the ASA Northwest Regional fastpitch tournament, the North Kitsap Ravens’ 14-U select team knew it would take a determined effort to reach nationals: win five games in two days.

But that’s exactly what they did.

For the team of North Kitsap eighth graders, comprised of players who attend both Poulsbo and Kingston junior high schools, the love of the game kept them going, winning one game after another, and finally qualifying Sunday for nationals in Moreno Valley, Calif.

“We have dedication and we love being on the field,” said the Ravens’ Ashley Tobin. “We will do anything for this team.”

Their efforts were evident at the July 22-25 tournament held at Woodland Park in Seattle. After beating the Coeur d’Alene Crush 15-1 on Friday, the team took a loss in its second contest to Hillsboro Thunder, 4-2.

And that’s where the long, hard road out of the loser’s bracket began.

The team beat first beat club Triple Threat, 13-8, in a game that took two days to complete. With only a half-inning’s worth of work left in the game for the team to retire the side, Seattle Parks and Recreation killed the lights at around 11 p.m., Ravens’ coach Joe Schiel reported. Coming back the following morning, the Ravens needed only four pitches to complete the game, which featured three singles from Tobin, a triple and two singles from Aubin Duncan and Anna Heitstuman, three singles from Jess Gruber and two singles from Amanda Chartrand, Kendal Peiguss and Chelsie Brann.

That was only the beginning to a Saturday that would see the Ravens play four more games — games they had to win to qualify for the nationals event. But coach Schiel said the team took it in stride.

“When they’d win a game,” Schiel said, “there wasn’t a lot of cheer going on. It was, ‘OK — we got that one, now onto the next one.’”

Behind Hannah McCluskey’s two singles and a sacrifice and Tobin’s additional two singles, the Ravens beat select team Pressure from Oregon by a 4-1 margin. The Ravens kept their hopes alive by tacking on another victory over the Tigard Blast, also from Oregon, by a 3-1 score.

The team needed to win at least two games Saturday to qualify. It got off to a good start, pounding the select squad Sting 14-1 behind the pitching of Jordy Chargulaf, who also went three-for-four with a triple. Tobin was five-for-five in the game, Jess Gruber went three-for-four and Chelsie Brann had a double a single. Schiel said the team was able to maintain its composure after so many games because they were on a mission — and it was business as usual.

“They’re hard workers,” Schiel said. “They practice the way they play.”

“We don’t quit, we never quit,” added the Ravens’ McCluskey.

In the night cap — which would finish at 10:40 p.m. — the team beat the Silver Foxes to qualify for the nationals event. Though they would lose the next morning to the Seattle Spice 7-4, they had managed to break through and earn a trip to Moreno Valley. Schiel said that through two nights of little sleep and seemingly countless innings of fastpitch played, his players weren’t even phased.

“The parents were worse off than they were,” Schiel added with a laugh.

The Ravens begin play at the nationals event today. The sky’s the limit, team members said.

“If we want to, we’ll take it,” Tobin said. “And if we don’t take it all, we’ll still have fun doing it.”