Santa Cruz – A little offense, a little luck and lots of good pitching and defense helped the Gilroy Americans send home Capitola-Soquel from the District 39 11-year-olds All-Star Tournament by a score of 7-3 Wednesday night in Santa Cruz.
Gilroy will play the Watsonville Americans Friday at 6pm for the chance to go to the Final Four. The loser of that game finishes in fifth place.
The American League All-Stars didn’t waste any time getting on the board, jumping all over Capitola-Soquel starting pitcher Kyle Graf in the top of the first inning. Ian Carabarin, Patrick Mank, Ryan Alba, Brandon Irby and Peter Hilkene all scored, many on errors, to give the Americans a 5-0 lead by the time the inning was over. It also forced a pitching change on Capitola-Soquel, which put in Brady Schuefler.
In the second inning, Gilroy starter Alba singled in Carabarin to make it 6-0 and in the third, Allen Cooper singled home Irby to make it 7-0.
Capitola-Soquel finally put two runs across in the bottom of the third inning and then loaded the bases. But Alba kept his cool on the mound and caught Andrew Stavreneros looking for one of his three strikeouts and the third out of the inning.
Every time Capitola-Soquel looked poised to break the game open, Gilroy responded. But it still made for some shaky moments, even with the lead.
“Yes, I was (nervous),” said Gilroy assistant coach Glen Irby. “I thought the kids flattened out.”
The final inning ended in dramatic fashion as well.
Capitola-Soquel loaded the bases with only one out. But Brandon Irby, who moved from behind the plate to the mound for the final inning as Gilroy’s fourth pitcher of the day, battled back from a 3-1 count against Capitola-Soquel’s Dillon McCoy and struck him out for the second out. He then forced the next batter to pop out to Alba for the win.
The Americans were without manager John Price, who was ejected from the last game for leaving the dugout to retrieve a foul ball outside the park. That’s just one example of how much tighter the rules are enforced during the All-Star tournaments. In Wednesday’s game, Price was asked to change his glove when he took the mound because it was too light in color.
“It worked fine in Gilroy and fine last game, but not tonight,” Irby said.
Price will be back from his suspension for Friday’s game.
Nationals eliminated
In the nightcap, the Gilroy National All-Star squad was eliminated from the 11-year-olds tournament in a 5-4 heartbreaker to the Santa Cruz Americans.
Gilroy dominated Santa Cruz for all but one half inning. But in the bottom of the sixth, home team Santa Cruz rallied back from 4-1 down to tie the game. With two outs, Santa Cruz drove home a runner on second to win it.
Gilroy built a 2-0 lead in the first inning when shortstop Nathan Davis doubled in Jourdan Soares and Kyle Collett. Soares drove in a run of his own with a second inning double to make it 3-0. The Nationals extended their lead to 4-0 in the third inning when Marshall Deogracia hit an RBI single.
The Gilroy offense, coupled with some heads-up defense, held Santa Cruz to one run through five-and-a-half innings. But a string of clutch singles up the middle capped by a steal on a wild pitch allowed Santa Cruz to tie Gilroy 4-4 in the sixth. Another Santa Cruz single up the middle ended the game and Gilroy’s run at the Final Four.
The Nationals finished the tournament tied for seventh.
All-Stars roundup
A look at how Gilroy teams did in Wednesday’s tournament play:
nIn the Boys’ Majors tournament in Scotts Valley, the Gilroy Americans lost 7-6 to the Santa Cruz Americans to end their run with a fifth-place finish.
Gilroy starter Bubu Garcia held Santa Cruz to two runs in four innings pitched, leaving the game with a 4-2 lead. Santa Cruz scored two in the bottom of the fifth inning to tie the game at 4-4, but Gilroy struck back in the top of the sixth when Eric Vegas knocked in Jacob Brindle and Kyle Stannard with a single to make it 6-4.
Santa Cruz ended Gilroy’s tournament in the final frame when it scored on a play at the plate to get within a run, then produced a game-winning hit with two on to score the tying and winning runs.
nIn Pool A of the Boys’ Minors (9-10) tourney in Watsonville, the Gilroy Nationals lost 19-7 to the Watsonville Americans Wednesday evening to end their tournament in fourth place.
“The kids were great, they had a really good attitude about and they took the loss in stride,” said head coach Ruben Reyes, who thanked coaches Dave Gallardo and “Bubba” Lara, as well as the parents who came out to support the team.
On Tuesday night, the Gilroy Americans beat the Santa Cruz Nationals 10-0 in a Pool B game that was called after four innings on the mercy rule. The Americans are now 1-1 in the tournament and face Scotts Valley, a 22-14 winner over the Watsonville Nationals, tonight at 5:30pm at Watsonville National Park.
“Everybody hit well,” said Gilroy coach Todd Jones, who added that Jonathon Robles, who knocked a ball over the fence in the team’s 13-8 loss to Salsipuedes on June 30, nearly did the same on Tuesday. Robles’ hard-hit ball to the fence wound up as a triple.
Jordan Jimenez started for Gilroy, going four innings without giving up a run. Robles starts tonight for the Americans.
nIn the Gilroy Little League Senior Majors playoffs, the Giants beat the Red Sox 12-8 on Wednesday at GHS to force to a second game in the double-elimination championship playoffs.
Sam May, Joey Morrow and Jerrod Schreckengost pitched for the Giants, who broke open a close game in the fifth inning.
The Giants and Red Sox square off at GHS at 5:30pm on Friday night.
