Garcia tosses a gem; Cardinals go undefeated in Tournament of
Champions
Salinas – The Major Cardinals of Hollister Little League have been doing it right all season long.
The team has found success by rooting itself in camaraderie, class on the field and by developing its collective baseball IQ. With this approach, Manager Jerry Sepulveda and his coaching staff have cultivated a squad that can enjoy the best of both worlds: winning a lot of games while having a whole lot of fun playing the game of baseball.
On Tuesday at Continental Park in Salinas, the Cardinals (23-2) defeated the Brewers, the team that handed them their only two losses of the season, 10-2 to earn the District Nine Tournament of Champions crown.
“All of our kids hit the ball very well tonight. Everybody in our lineup had a hit actually,” Sepulveda said. “The kids are pretty excited about this. But, they never go overboard, they’re just enjoying the moment like they should be right now.”
There might have been a bit of intimidation on the Cardinals’ part coming into their TOC matchups with the Brewers given what happened the first two times the teams met this season. But the Cardinals didn’t waste any time on Tuesday in showing the Brewers that they meant business as they scored four runs in the top of the first.
And, with starting pitcher Ricky Garcia throwing at the top of his game, four runs would prove to be all the Cardinals needed as their defense played a solid game behind Garcia’s dominant outing.
Inning after inning, Garcia baffled the Brewers’ offense with an overpowering fastball complimented by an assortment of off speed pitches. In the bottom of the first, he retired three in a row on strikes, all swinging, a feat Garcia would repeat in the fifth as well.
But the young Cardinals’ hurler wasn’t just getting it done on the mound, he had a pretty good day in the batter’s box as well. In the top of the fourth, with his team up 4-0, Garcia got ahold of one and sent it over the fence in left for a solo shot.
The Cardinals put the game out of reach in the sixth with another five-run outburst, highlighted by a two-run blast over the fence by catcher Jahz Gonzalez.
