It looks as if California District 41 Little League has something tasty stirring in the pot after advancing three of its all-star teams — 10U, 11U and 12U — to California Section 7 championship games earlier in the week.
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.
Section championship games were Tuesday following the start of the tournament on Saturday.
Headlining the trio of championship game qualifiers were Santee National Little League in the 10U division, Rancho de Oro Little League in the 11U division and Alpine American Little League in the 12U division.
ROAD TO THE LLWS
Alpine American opened the section tournament by defeating District 22 champion El Centro, 11-0, and then taming District 42 champion Eastlake Little League by a narrow 1-0 score on Sunday 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 70-minute game was scored by Alpine American’s Cash Calderon on a close play at the plate.
Reis earned the win while scattering five hits with five strikeouts.
Meanwhile, El Centro and Eastlake dropped to an elimination game on Monday that Eastlake handily won, 17-0, in just three innings to get a second crack at the District 41 champions. The District 42 champions had defeated the District 22 champions, 22-2, in a run-rule encounter that lasted only three innings in the opening round.
Alpine American extended its all-star record to 8-0 after winning another pitcher’s duel on Tuesday against Eastlake 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 failed to score a run.
“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 shoutout 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.”
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.
In other section championship game pairings, Santee National advanced to meet District 42 champion Sweetwater Valley in the 10U tournament played at Brawley Little League in Imperial County while Rancho de Oro advanced to meet Sweetwater Valley in the 11U tournament played at Spring Valley Little League.
