The Hollister Headhunters 11U travel baseball team won its third
consecutive tournament last week when it traveled to Reno for the
Labor Day Classic and bested all opponents en route to a 5-0
record.
RENO
The Hollister Headhunters 11U travel baseball team won its third consecutive tournament last week when it traveled to Reno for the Labor Day Classic and bested all opponents en route to a 5-0 record.
In the opening game against the Nevada Dust Devils of Reno, the Headhunters posted 11 runs in just four innings for an 11-1 victory. Pitchers Davonte Butler and Sammy Vicencio held the Devils to just a pair of hits in a game highlighted by a grand slam from Tim Manderson.
In game two, the Headhunters quickly fell behind by six runs to the Bulldog Baseball Club of Vacaville. They slowly battled back and went ahead in the fifth when Derek Moeller slammed a bases-clearing three-RBI double to put the team ahead, evntually holding on by the final of 10-8. Centerfielder Nico Lopez also reached base all three times at bat to help fuel the comeback.
In its second game on Sunday, the Headhunters faced off against Bret’s Muckdogs, another local Nevada team. Although Hollister again fell behind in the fourth inning by a 4-3 margin, the Headhunters battled back once again with the help of a three-RBI hitting performance from second baseman Matt Hill.
The Headhunters outlasted the Muckdogs behind the throwing arms of Izzak Olejnik and Josh Zanger, who allowed just three hits in five innings of work.
The Headhunters faced the Reno Blue Devils in the semifinal match-up on Labor Day, but had little trouble recording a 10-0 victory. The team plated six runs in the first and never looked back in a shortened game that featured three solid hits by shortstop Drew Williams. Butler also pitched the entire game, yielding only three hits.
Facing the Central Coast Whitecaps for the fifth time this year, the Headhunters battled for the championship against a local rival from Santa Cruz. Again, the Headhunters prevailed by outscoring the Whitecaps 11-5 in a six-inning affair. The two teams exchanged leads until the fifth when the Headhunters went ahead to stay. Third baseman Zach Mata provided a powerful RBI double that bounced over the center field fence to close the door on the Whitecaps.
For the tournament, the Headhunters were led at the plate by Manderson (.769), Williams (.583), Butler (.533) and Vicencio (.500), and achieved a weekend team batting average of .411.
Hollister will play next at the Harvest Classic on Sept. 26 and 27 at Twin Creeks in Sunnyvale.
