Gilroy Little League Section 5 Champions. Front Row: Connor Villanueva, Sergio Sanchez, Brenden Lodge, Christopher Gorgulho, Christopher Colyer. Middle row: Ethan Gonzalez, Aidan Lee, Marshall Silva, Shawn Hernandez, Bobby Baxter, Jonathan Rodriguez and m

GILROY—From the start, Nelson Villanueva knew his team was special.
The manager of the Gilroy Little League Boys Majors All-Star team said he knew the boys could make a strong run through the postseason, but they did more than that—they made history.
The Boys Majors became the first Gilroy Little League baseball team to make it to the Northern California Divisional Tournament—which was held in San Jose—in more than 30 years, claiming the District 59 and Section 5 crowns along the way. The All-Stars were three games shy of making it to the Western Region Tournament in San Bernardino, but were eliminated by Woodcreek, 8-1, on July 22.
“The boys side, it’s just tough getting out of districts and winning sectionals,” Villanueva said. “The boys got better from it, but there was a lot of long, sad faces obviously. …A lot of people around town asked what happened and when we told them how far we got they were just amazed—that does not happen to the boys side.”
The All-Stars finished with an 11-3 overall record and as the No. 4 overall team in their age group out of 367 leagues in Northern California. Gilroy lost the NorCal opener to Mill Valley 4-3, but out-slugged River Park American 17-15 to stay alive in the tournament.
“We do everything as a team and with this team it was amazing. It was not one (player), it was all 13,” Villanueva said. “It was something magical. It was incredible that was happening and then obviously the magic ran out.”
Gilroy’s run was almost over before it begun as it found itself in the loser’s bracket after falling to Evergreen on the second day of the District 59 tournament on June 29. The All-Stars faced that same team in the semifinals and found themselves in a scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth. Gilroy hit a walk-off grand slam to beat Evergreen and punch it’s ticket to the finals on July 5 and 6 where it would have to beat Oakridge twice to move on.
Oakridge featured a 6-4 pitcher, but Villanueva told his boys to stick to their game plan and let him reach his pitch limit. The coach said he knew if his team could get through Game 1, it would be able to claim the District 59 crown—which is exactly what happened.
The All-Stars went undefeated through the Section 5 Tournament, but it was far from easy. Gilroy drew Scotts Valley first and easily won 9-2. Next up was Briarwood—which was essentially the same team which won the 11-year-old sectional crown last year—and the team found itself in a 7-0 hole in the fifth inning. The All-Stars put up a five spot to cut the lead to 7-5 at that point, but Briarwood pushed another across to start the sixth. Gilroy was far from done, however, and it blasted a three-run homer in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game. Briarwood lead-off with a triple to start the seventh, but Gilroy’s pitcher got the runner out on a fake to first before striking out the other two. Gilroy needed just one run to capture the ‘W’ and it got just that in dramatic fashion.
“I tell my guys to get on base, we’ll bunt you along,” Villanueva said. “We just need to score a run and he hits a walk-off homerun.”
Gilroy met Los Gatos next and the teams engaged in a battle of lead changes before Los Gatos finally took control at 8-5 heading into the final inning. The opponents brought in their hard throwing closer, but after walking the first two batters he was taken out for a pitcher who has curveballs in his wheelhouse—a difficult pitch for his players to hit, Villanueva said.
The next Gilroy batter is hit by a pitch to load the bases and the team is able to bring a run across to cut the lead to 8-6. Los Gatos quickly records two outs, but Gilroy had Deja vu as it’s No. 3 batter crushed a three-run homer to win 9-3.
“It’s like ‘Is there something in the air?’ Two days in a row we have walk-offs. The emotions were just crazy,” Villanueva said.
Los Gatos had a chance to exact its revenge as Gilroy’s matchup in the Sectional finals. Villanueva told his team to make it a one-and-done deal and not give Los Gatos any momentum with a Game 1 win. The All-Stars did just that, easily handling Los Gatos 6-2.
“It was one of those moments where it was like ‘Woah! What did we just accomplish? We just won sectionals’,” Villanueva said. “Someone told me that a team from District 59 never gets this far.”
The boys will have the opportunity to try again next year if they decide to reunite on the juniors team. While travel and high school ball normally takes precedence, Villanueva said he heard some players say they’d love to come back and see how far they can go. Either way, he’s happy with how the season went.
“The boys believed that we did have a good team,” Villanueva said. “I told them ‘This is one of the best boys teams I’ve ever seen.’ It doesn’t happen so often because of the age groups. It’s hard to get 13 great players together.”

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