SB Babe Ruth run ends
After routing Mangilao, Guam 15-2 to open the Pacific Southwest
14-year-old Regional Tournament, the San Benito Babe Ruth All-Stars
lost to host Palo Alto 8-3 on Saturday and to Hamilton, Ariz., 10-6
on Sunday at the Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto.
SB Babe Ruth run ends
After routing Mangilao, Guam 15-2 to open the Pacific Southwest 14-year-old Regional Tournament, the San Benito Babe Ruth All-Stars lost to host Palo Alto 8-3 on Saturday and to Hamilton, Ariz., 10-6 on Sunday at the Baylands Athletic Center in Palo Alto.
The two losses eliminated San Benito from the regional tournament, where a tourney victory would have sent the local 14-year-old All-Stars east to Quincy, Mass., to compete in the World Series.
“We played a lot of good baseball. It was a good experience at regionals, just to see how we fared,” said Manager Joe Ocampo. “And I think we fared pretty well.”
San Benito finishes their All-Star tournament run with a 9-2 record. They outscored their opponents by 98-30 margin.
Starting the tournament off perhaps better than expected, San Benito easily dispatched Guam 15-2 in five innings behind 14 hits and five Guam errors.
San Benito plated at least two runs in each inning, and even took a comfortable 4-0 lead after the top half of the first.
“We started off like we wanted to,” Ocampo said. “We wanted to get up, get some runs and we did.”
After Sergio Cosio (2-for-2, 2 runs) reached on an infield single and Adrian Medina was hit by a pitch, starting pitcher Jacob Cabral (2.1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 4 K, 2 BB) helped his own cause with a two-run double to center field in the first inning, while Anthony Ocampo followed with an RBI Texas leaguer to shallow right field.
Tanner Carrillo-Zazueta’s (2-for-2, RBI, 3 runs) RBI single later in the inning gave San Benito an early four-run lead.
Reliever Dustin Rovella pitched the remaining 2 and 2-3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits. Both runs were unearned, however, while Rovella struck out five.
Instead of jumping out to a 4-0 lead against Palo Alto or Arizona, like they had against Guam, San Benito fell behind early in their final two games of the tourney.
“After that game (against Guam), I knew it was gonna be tough. It was gonna be better baseball,” Ocampo said.
Palo Alto’s BJ Boyd connected on an inside-the-park homer with the first pitch of the game Saturday, highlighting a three-run first for the host team, while Arizona went up 3-0 after one half-inning as well.
San Benito cut each deficit in the bottom half, but committed a combined five errors in the first inning during their final two games.
“Obviously, we could come back and get some runs, but we didn’t play an error-free game,” Ocampo said. “We had to play error-less, make the plays, and we didn’t.
“It was a good experience, especially for the boys coming back as 15 year olds – to see what teams are out there and what caliber of tournament this is,” Ocampo said. “It’s a big accomplishment for the boys. It was a good experience for everybody.”
