It was nearly an ideal game for the Hollister National 9- and
10-year-old All-Stars in their first game at the Northern
California Division II Championship.
By Andrew Matheson Sports Editor
San Jose – It was nearly an ideal game for the Hollister National 9- and 10-year-old All-Stars in their first game at the Northern California Division II Championship.
National’s five-run second inning against Porterville opened the door for a 7-2 win on Sunday at East Hills Little League in San Jose, and allowed Manager Adam Breen to throw a plethora of pitchers, keeping pitch counts low, while making first-game jitters practically meaningless.
National used five pitchers against Porterville in the second round of the NorCal championship. After a first-round bye, National’s victory now places them one win away of this weekend’s championship.
The squad will battle Davis on Wednesday night in San Jose, with the winner advancing to Saturday’s championship round.
And come Wednesday, National will have plenty of pitchers who have already thrown in the tournament, hopefully displacing any butterflies that may have existed.
Hunter Haworth, Riley Lange, Andrew Breen, John Batelle and Brandon Granger all appeared on the mound for National, with Haworth throwing the most pitches (34). Said Breen, “That many guys, for six innings, will keep our pitching staff fresh.”
Division 6 Porterville, located just south of Fresno, entered Sunday’s matchup after defeating Division 4 West Sacramento on Saturday.
On Sunday, National would score in the top half of the first inning after Quinn Mendoza led off with a single, and advanced to second on a pass ball. Andrew Sotelo bunted Mendoza to third base, and would later score on a throwing error.
Porterville responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the first on two hits, three walks and three errors.
In the second, though, National broke the game open with five runs. The rally started when Mendoza reached on an error with a pair of runners in scoring position, scoring Riley Phelps from third base. Later, with the bases loaded, Andrew Breen connected on a ball to deep center field that ricocheted off the center fielder’s glove and plated three runs. Breen would also score later in the inning on a pass ball.
With a 6-2 lead, starting pitcher Haworth, who was bothered by soreness in his arm, was pulled. Breen said Haworth could have continued pitching if necessary, but with a four-run lead, and the strength of National’s pitching staff, Breen decided to “utilize our pitching depth once again.” Meanwhile, Haworth continued to play at shortstop.
“If we scored some runs and got up on them, we figured we’d try to use a lot more pitchers,” the manager added.
Reliever Lange came in and threw 20 pitches, Breen hurled 17, Batelle had 18, and Granger finished the game with 26 pitches thrown. In total, National pitchers allowed four hits, and under Little League rules, only Haworth and Granger will be forced to sit out Wednesday’s game.
National would later add a run in the fourth when Greg Moreno drew a bases loaded walk, scoring Phelps, and putting National up 7-2.
National only had five hits in the game, with Garrett Kelly going 2-for-3 with a run scored. The squad did, however, draw six base on balls.
“We were doing what it took to get on base,” Breen said. “We walked six times. Add those to our five hits, and we had a lot of opportunities on the bases.”
National will now face Davis on Wednesday at 5:30pm at East Hills Little League in San Jose.
“They put the ball in play and they look sound defensively,” Breen said of Davis. “They look like a good team who will give us some good competition.”
