11U baseball team earns berth into nationals with tournament
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FREMONT – In an all-Gilroy tournament championship game in Fremont, the South Valley Extreme 11-under baseball team disposed of another garlic-based unit – the Garlic City Bandits – by a 10-3 spread.
The Extreme received championship rings from the Super Series event and the tournament title also earned them a berth into the Super Series Nationals in Arkansas.
“That’s what one of our goals was. We set goals to qualify for the nationals,” Extreme head coach Warren Gaspar said. “We didn’t want to wait until June to qualify. We wanted to take care of business early.”
It was the second time in the tournament that the Extreme came out on top over the Bandits – winning a 7-4 decision in their second game.
“The Bandits, they’re a good team. They’re a well-coached team,” Coach Gaspar said. “A lot of my kids knew the kids on other team. Some of parents knew parents… My hats off to their coach.”
The Extreme were washed out of their last two tournaments and were hungry to get back on the diamond after a poor showing in the Clovis Tournament.
“We were supposed play last week in Sunnyvalle, but it got rained out,” said Gaspar, who flagged poor defense as the main reason for his squad’s outing in the Clovis Tournament. “Going into the Clovis Tournament, our practices were OK. They just weren’t crisp. But these last three weeks of practice were crisp. Our hitting and our pitching and our defense were all crisp.”
Better practices resulted in the Extreme’s first tournament championship – just what they needed to get into the Super Series Nationals.
“The kids knew (in was a qualifier). We talked about it going in,” Gaspar said. “We practiced hard. We worked hard so let’s go have it pay off. We set our minds to it. We talked about it going in, ‘let’s go win this thing.”
The Extreme are also going back for a second shot at the Clovis Tournament because Gaspar said, “we want to prove something. That we weren’t as bad as the first time.”
In the championship victory over the Bandits, starting pitcher Lukas Fortino (1 1/3 IP) as well as relievers Taylor Chris (2 IP) and Kaohu Gaspar joined forced on the mound.
Offensively, Gaspar was a perfect 4-for-4 with four RBIs; Jonathan Asuncion went 2-for-3 with a run-scored and a RBI; Jared Poole finished 2-for-3 with a double, 2 RBI, and a run-scored; Chris went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI and a run-scored; and Kyle Prewett was 1-for-3.
The first of the Extreme’s four tournament wins was an 11-3 nod over the Manteca Steelers. The pitching by committee began with Fortino (2 1/3 IP, 6 Ks) was handed off to Brandon Tuminaro (1/3 IP) and finished off by Chris (2 1/3 IP, 2 Ks, O H).
The big hitters were Asuncion (3-for-3, 5 RBI); Gaspar (2-for-4, 2 RBI); Chris (2-for-3 2 RBI); Jordan Holler (2-for-3, RBI); and Fortino (triple, RBI).
In game-two, the Extreme topped the Bandits for the first time, 7-4, behind the joint pitching effort of starter Larry Ariaza (2 1/3 IP) and Gaspar (2 2/3 IP, 3 Ks).
At the plate, Gaspar went 3-for-3 with two RBI and two run-scored; Chris as well as Ariaza finished 2-for-3 with one RBI; Asuncion was 2-for-3 with a run-scored; Tuminaro went 2-for-2 with a RBI and run-scored; and Fortino doubled with a RBI.
The next day, the Extreme shut out the Nevada Outlaws by an 8-0 margin with Fortino pitching the opening three innings and Tuminaro closing the game out.
With the bats, Holler (RBI), Gaspar (3 RBI); Asuncion (RBI); and Fortino (3 RBI, triple) all had 2-for-3 days.
The Extreme’s only loss was a meaningless pool play game against Balls Out as they fell 10-4. Despite the defeat, the Extreme were the top seed for the championship rounds.
“The first day it was four hours from our first game to our second game. The toughest thing was to keep them relaxed. I knew going into Sunday they were relaxed and that was a good sign.”
