Team records one win, but loses twice to Willow Glen
San Jose – The Hollister American 10-11-year-old All-Star team wrapped up its season in the Section 5 tournament in San Jose Sunday. After going undefeated to win the District 9 title, Hollister won its second game Saturday but lost on Sunday to be eliminated from the tournament at Oakridge Field.
“We had a great group of kids,” said Hollister manager Dave Slibsager, whose All-Stars finished at 6-2. “The boys put a lot of heart into it in pretty adverse conditions with the heat. They played hard the whole game, every game.”
On Saturday, Hollister defeated Spartan Little League of San Jose, the District 59 representative, 8-3.
Richie Beltran, who pitched six innings, struck out 15 of the 17 batters he faced. After hitting a monster home run shot in the second inning, he gave up a solo shot to right field in the fourth inning.
“Richie pitched a great game,” Slibsager said. “He was just overpowering.”
Ryan Christian finished off the game with two strikeouts.
It took an extra inning to pull out the win. The game was tied at 1-1 going into the seventh inning before Hollister erupted for seven runs after 11 players batted.
K.C. Hansen walked to start the inning, Skyler Shaw-Fuss doubled, Ray Rueda walked, John Barrera singled to score one run and Craig Slibsager doubled down right field line to clear the bases. Beltran walked, Dalan Hoskins singled and Zack Szyndrowski walked to force in a run.
After opening up the tournament Friday night with a 6-2 loss to Lincoln Glen, Hollister lost 6-3 to the team on Sunday.
Lincoln Glen started it off early with three runs on four hits and a walk in the first inning. Hollister scored a run in the second inning but left two runners on base and then scored two in the third off doubles by Slibsager and Hoskins.
Lincoln Glen scored a run in the bottom of the third to go ahead 4-3 and then scored two more in the fourth off three hits and an error.
In the fifth, Hollister left the bases loaded but couldn’t score, and in the sixth, Willow Glen turned a 6-4-3 double play to get out of trouble.
“We left a lot of runners on base and it really hurt us,” Slibsager said. “Lincoln Glen was a good team, but our team was just as good. I think we out hit them, but we just had a couple costly errors.”
