HERMISTON – The Hermiston Purple 9-10-year-old all-stars easily dispatched Hood River White Saturday 20-3 to open the District 5 Little League tournament after a bye in Friday’s pool play.

Justin Pedly quickly got rid of the first game jitters for Hermiston, with a two-run home run over the left-centerfield fence in the first inning to put the host team ahead 3-0. He followed that up with by striking out the first three Hood River batters he faced.

“Justin had a good day, he came ready to play ball,” Hermiston manager Jeff Schwirse said.

Jake Almaguer opened the game by reaching on an error and Tate Gabriel followed with an RBI double to set up Pedly.

Pedly said that he enjoyed his 3 for 4 hitting performance that also included a double and a single more than his six strike outs in two innings pitched.

Although he admitted the home run was hit hard, he said that he can, “hit a little bit harder than that.

“I’m not supposed to try to kill the ball, I’m just supposed to hit the ball,” Pedly said.

“I think we can make state … win district,” Pedly said of his team’s chances of advancing from the district tournament.

Hood River likely would not argue that point after Hermiston posted 13 more runs in the second inning.

Gabriel, Nathan Parks and Pedly each had a pair of hits and runs in the inning. Almaguer doubled, as did Pedly and Rue Ayers while Zane Davis, Hayden Hawkins and Lupe Delgado each added singles for Hermiston.

“The butterflies were flying a little bit. “I was glad to see he them come out and throw the ball hard and hit good,” Schwirse said.

A single by Dain Lloyd and a double by Gabriel scored two runs in the third for Hermiston and they closed out the scoring with two more in the fourth.

“That’s one thing we’ve been working on really hard is getting everybody to hit the ball,” Schwirse said.

Hood River’s Skyler Smith greeted Almaguer, who pitched the third for Hermiston, with a single and a by William Helton and an RBI single from Andrew Thompson led to a two-run single by Luke Ihle.

Parks faced just three batters in the fourth, striking out two to end the game.

Schwirse praised the efforts of catcher Zane Davis, Jake Almaguer at shortstop and Taylor Parks at third base.

“I think we can step it up a notch, we had a few baserunning errors and a couple of kids didn’t hit the ball real well, so I think we can improve.

“I think we can make it to the championship game,” said Schwirse.

Redmond 21, Hermiston Gold 0

Redmond improved to 2-0 in pool play with a 21-0 win over Hermiston Gold, who fell to 1-1 in the tournament.

After a slow start, Redmond exploded for 15 runs in the third inning to take a 17-0 lead and Hermiston was never able to get the offense going.

“They had a good team,” Hermiston Gold manager Ken Studer said. “They showed up to play ball and did what they are supposed to do.

“There’s a lot of things we need to work on … we’re just going to try and get the next one.”

Redmond sent 19 batters to the plate in the fourth inning and got at least a single from each position in the batting order. Tyler Martin and Matt Dhlen were each 3 for 3 in the game and Conner Lau was 3 for 4 with a double. Cordell McKinney and Hayden Crook also doubled for Redmond.

Colin Lucas meanwhile breezed trough his three innings of work as the Redmond starter, striking out eight and retiring all nine batters he faced.

Hermiston’s Garrett Dunn opened the fourth inning with a pinch-hit single against Braydon Bordges to break up the perfect game. Omar Portillo reached on an error before Gunnar Bier walked to load the bases with no outs but the Hermiston Gold team was unable to score.

“The kids are good ball players. They got down on themselves a little bit,” Studer said.

Hood River 4, Jefferson County 1

Hood River earned a run for each hit in a 4-1 win against Jefferson County.

Spencer Gray tripled in the first inning and scored on an error and another error in the fourth put Cody Walker aboard ahead of Luke Kopecky, who walked and later scored.

Gray had all four Hood River hits in the game, including two triples.

Justin Cleveland and Jasper Gerhardt had the Jefferson County hits.

Bend Blue 20, The Dalles 0

Brennan Rooks, Tanner Torkelson and Jacob Hollister combined to pitch a no-hitter for Bend Blue as the offense pummeled The Dalles 20-0 in four innings.

The Dalles drew four walks in the game, but struck out nine times.

Brooks paced the offense with a three run, 3 for 4 effort to match Drew Wickham, who was also 3 for 4. Tanner Tokelson was 2 for 4 and Cody Hollister added a triple.

Columbia 11, Bend North Red 4

Six Columbia all-stars had hits, including doubles by Zach Ash and Fransisco Nunez and a triple by Brandon Williams, in an 11-4 win over Bend North Red Saturday.

Matt Larrenton had Red’s only extra base hit, a double, against Devin Bailey, who pitched all six innings, allowing four hits and collecting eight strike outs.

Bailey was 2 for 3 at the plate and Justin Vandever was 2 for 2.

Willow Creek 30, Deschutes 5

Willow Creek scored at will Saturday in a 30-5 win over Deschutes, bouncing back well from a 4-2 loss Friday to Hermiston Gold.

Drew Brannon led the attack at the plate with a three double performance and Cam Day equaled the one-hit four run effort of teammate Zach Yocom.

Torey Schmidt had a triple to support the pitching efforts of Justin Pronger and Drew Brannon.

Alex Riggs was 2 for 2 for Deschutes, who fell to 0-2, while Kyle Burnett and Joel Dulig each had singles.

Crook County 4, Bend South 3

Bend South scored three runs in the fifth inning, but could not get by Crook County, who scored a 4-3 win to improve to 2-0 in the tournament.

Isaac Markham had half of Bend South’s hits in a 2 for 2 effort and JC Grim added a double to go with a single from Kyle Lammers.

An error put the first Crook County batter aboard in the bottom of the first and a double by Dayton Stafford set-up a two run double by Cody Pfau. Crook County pushed across the deciding run in the bottom of the fifth on a pair of Bend South errors.

Stafford also scored a run and had a single in the game, with Jerren Larimer and Jacob Bates adding singles.