Ray Johnson doesn’t think it hurt that his Kelso All-Stars didn’t play in any district, state or regional tournaments like the other teams qualifying for the Babe Ruth 13-15 World Series.

“We played several games against Longview, Centralia and Hazel Dell Metro, along with playing a lot of Junior American Legion and high school club teams in Oregon,” Johnson said. “We played most of our games against older teams, and we’ve found that getting beat up by older teams has made us better.”

Kelso is no stranger to the World Series. All-star teams playing home games at Stan Rister Stadium are making their second trip onto the national stage in three years. In 2007, Kelso’s 13-15 Babe Ruth All-Stars qualified for the World Series in Andalusia, Ala., and reached the semifinals before losing to Henderson, Ky., and finishing third.

That team was managed by the late Bob Baker, and he was assisted by John Croco, Mike Bender and Bob Smith.

Last year as 14-year-olds, Johnson’s Kelso team was one cut-off throw away from advancing to the World Series in Quincy, Mass. That throw, by a Mount Vernon player, helped gun down the go-ahead run at the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning of a 5-5 game.

Kelso went on to lose to Mount Vernon 12-6 in eight innings in the Pacific Northwest Regional title game.

“The guys are more focused this year,” Johnson said. “They seem to focus more when there’s something on the line like a tournament title. We may be overlooked because we’re a host team, but we plan on winning games coming up.”

As a warm-up for the World Series a month ago, Kelso won the CABA (Continental-American Baseball Association) 15-year-old Northwest National Championship Wood Bat tournament held in Blaine. Tournament MVP Slate Miller belted a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning as Kelso went on to a 5-3 victory in the finals.

Winning the championship qualified Kelso for the 60-team 2010 CABA World Series in East Cobb, Ga., next July.

“The parents want us to go to the tournament next year, but we’re going to need a lot of funding,” Johnson said. “We’ll see what happens.”

Johnson characterizes his squad as “a hitting team with our defense coming together.”

“We can definitely score runs and our pitching is coming around,” he said. “Cobi (Johnson), Chace (Johanson), Corbin (Sims) and Slate are coming around as pitchers. Austin (Nazelrod) is a good catcher, and Slate and Cam (Johnson) are hitting really well. Someone different steps up every game.”

Kelso is seeded into the tournament’s National Division with Centralia (Pacific Northwest champion), Colonie, N.Y. (Middle Atlantic), Cranston, R.I. (New England) and Tallahassee, Fla. (Southeast). Tallahassee finished runner-up to Norwalk, Conn., in last year’s 14-year-old World Series, and won the 13-year-old World Series two years ago.

The top three teams from each division advance to the quarterfinals.

Tallahassee makes it to the World Series every year and has been very successful,” Johnson said. “Somehow we drew the East Coast teams. I’m hoping to get two victories against them and beat Centralia, and we can move on to the quarterfinals.

“I don’t want to put any pressure on the kids because they’ve had enough pressure all summer,” he added. “All of the teams in the World Series are comparable, and I want the kids to have fun without any stress.”

Rounding out the team is Trevor Feeney, Nate Grumbois, Austin Halbleib, Mason Knight, Cody Rodgers and Matt Wagner. Johnson is assisted by Dave Nazelrod and Ryan Johnson.

Kelso, Wash.

Tournament co-host

Population: 11,895

Notable: Kelso operates under both a city charter and Washington state code governing municipalities. As such, it is the only Charter Code city in the state of Washington.

Famous natives: Jeff Bailey, Boston Red Sox first baseman; Jason Schmidt, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher; David Ritchie, former football player with the Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos and the XFL champion Los Angeles Xtreme; Connor Trinneer, actor on “Star Trek: Enterprise”; Dolores Erickson, fashion model appearing on record album covers including Whipped Cream & Other Delights (1965) by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass.

Driving distance from Longview: 4.6 miles