After what seems like ages, California District 42 Little League will not have a 12U team advancing to the Southern California divisional tournament after District 41 champion Alpine American Little League defeated District 42 champion Eastlake Little League, 3-0, in Tuesday’s section championship game. Alpine American, which previously defeated Eastlake, 1-0, in Sunday’s semifinals, advances to the SoCal divisional July 22-31 in Mission Viejo.
Eastlake had two cracks at Alpine American in this year’s section tournament, which began last Saturday at Eastlake Little League, but was shut out on both occasions.
“Alpine is a phenomenal team,” Eastlake manager Matt Fischer said in obvious respect. “They made all the plays. Our boys didn’t give up and fought to the end. I’m proud of the boys for the effort they put in. Alpine deserved to win. They were the better team.”
Road to the LLWS
Alpine American opened the section tournament by defeating District 22 champion El Centro, 11-0, and then tamed Eastlake’s bats the next day to improve to 2-0 in tourney play.
Cash Wise homered in the tournament opener as Alpine American pounced early and often on the District 22 champions.
Sunday’s pitching match-up featured Alpine American’s Carson Reis against Eastlake’s Eddie Acosta. The only run in the game was scored by Alpine American’s Cash Calderon on a close play at the plate on a passed ball.
Reis earned the win while scattering five hits with five strikeouts.
Eastlake had opened the section tournament with a commanding 22-2 victory against District 66 champion Spring Valley as Isaac Enriquez blasted a grand slam.
El Centro topped Spring Valley in Sunday’s elimination game before meeting up with Eastlake in an elimination game on Monday. Eastlake eliminated El Centro, 17-0, in three innings to rematch with Alpine American.
Jaziel Gonzalez started on the mound for the D-42 champs while Enriquez delivered the first RBI in the game. Johnny Lopez followed with another RBI and Ryan Nicolaus and Saul Gross followed with grand slams to propel Eastlake to a commanding 12-0 lead in the first inning.
Eastlake had a chance to advance to the SoCal tournament but had to defeat Alpine American twice in double-elimination play. It proved to be tall order as both teams hunkered down for a climactic battle.
Alpine American extended its all-star record to 8-0 after winning another pitcher’s duel on Tuesday as both teams combined for seven hits in the game.
Reis once again proved to be the big man on the diamond after clubbing a two-run home run in the first inning and later scoring an insurance run in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded walk in a tight 3-0 victory.
Sylas Entrekin threw 87 pitches while allowing four hits and striking out five batters. Calderon struck out the final batter in the game in short relief duty.
The newly minted section champions mustered just three hits of their own in the encounter.
Alpine American now advances to the SoCal divisional tournament July 22-31 at North Mission Viejo Little League. Eastlake had a chance to advance but had to defeat Alpine American twice in the double-elimination format in order to do so.
In two games against Alpine American, Eastlake (6-2 overall) failed to score a run while being shut out by a combined score of 4-0.
“This team is definitely built on pitching and defense,” Alpine American manager Johnny Dominguez said. “We have a handful of pitchers who have a national presence at the 11U and 12U levels. They came back for their final year of Little League and that allowed us to be competitive with extremely talented teams like Eastlake and those from District 42.”
It is believed this is the first time since 2007 that a team from Alpine American has advanced this deep into postseason play.
“We couldn’t even find the old banner,” Dominguez said. “None of these guys were even born when we won it then. It’s definitely a big deal for the league.”
Carson Dominguez reached base before Reis launched his first-inning homer. Reis reached base in the fourth inning before the next three batters – Calderon, Jason Esquibel and Diesel Haynes – each drew consecutive walks to push another run across the plate.
“It feels great,” Reis said about winning the team’s latest championship banner. “A shout-out goes to my teammates for getting on base for me when it’s my turn to bat. When we went up 3-0, I thought we kind of had it. But it’s never over until it’s over.”
The District 42 champions put runners on first and second bases with one out in the top of the sixth inning but one runner was erased on a force-out and the next batter struck out amid chants of “Alpine! Alpine” from the large visiting contingent.
Players on the Alpine American roster include Ryan Wilson, Caleb Adkins, Brayden Moore, Tristan Danczak, Gio Martingetti and Garrett Lomas in addition to Reis, Wise, Calderon, Dominguez, Esquibel and Entrekin.
Besides the elder Dominguez, Alpine American’s coaching staff includes Dale Entrekin and Craig Reis.
Eastlake used two pitchers in Tuesday’s section championship game: Enriquez and Nicolaus.
Fischer called Sunday’s semifinal game “the greatest pitching duel.”
“It was a one hour, 10-minute game — that tells you it was a great pitching duel,” the Eastlake manager said.
Batter up
The Section 7 tournament is the next step up from district championship tournaments. Section champions advance to the Southern California divisional level, the last stop for the 10U and 11U age groups and one step closer to the West Region Little League World Series qualifying tournament in the 12U age group.
Headlining the trio of championship games were match-ups between champions from District 42 and District 41 — Santee National Little League versus Sweetwater Valley in the 10U division, Rancho de Oro Little League versus Sweetwater Valley in the 11U division and Eastlake versus Alpine American Little League in the 12U division.
Sweetwater Valley (10U), Rancho de Oro (11U) and Alpine American (12U) were all undefeated heading into Tuesday’s championship games. Sweetwater Valley fought off elimination in the 11U bracket with a key 8-2 victory to force a double-elimination game between the teams on Wednesday, July 19. Santee National forced a double-elimination championship game against Sweetwater Valley also on Wednesday in the 10U bracket by winning 19-13.
Sweetwater Valley captured section titles by sweeping Wednesday’s double-elimination contests – winning 20-4 in the 10U bracket and 5-2 in the 11U bracket.
Both SVLL teams advance to the SoCal divisional, the last stop on their 2023 all-star odyssey.
Photos by Jon Bigornia
Photos by Steve Wood
