Two local teams compete tonight to face another local team
Tuesday
Host your own tournament. Automatic bid to the semifinals and championship.
Those incentives weren’t part of the original deal when Hollister was approved to host the 9- and 10-year-old District 9 All-Star tournament, which wraps up this week. But they might as well have been.
Hollister has three teams left in the tournament. But one will not be returning after tonight’s game, and one will be moving on to face the American A team. And the winner moves on to the section tournament.
The American B and National A teams meet tonight at 7 p.m. Both teams have one loss, so the winner will have to win two games to defeat the American A team.
The American A team advanced to the championship game by defeating the National A team 13-5 on Sunday.
In order to preserve arms for the championship, Hollister American manager Scott Salvas threw four pitchers in the victory – Cody Gessell (3), Tyler Pina, Dustin Rovella and Skyer Shaw-Fuss.
Behind Ryan Jacob’s solid start, the National team actually scored first and held the lead for a good part of the game.
The National scored three runs in the first inning, and each team scored a run in the second.
The Americans scored two in the fourth innings off a hit by Marcus Sabette.
And in the fifth, the Americans opened it up with two outs. Rovella and Tyler Quimby were hit by pitches to open the door for six runs to score.
The American team turned a double play in the sixth inning to end the game. Quimby, in left field, made a great catch while falling to his knee and cradling the ball. He gunned it back to Kevin Salvas at first base, who tagged the runner.
For the American squad, Jacob Moeller was 3-for-4, Quimby was 1-for-1 with a triple, Adrian Medina went 3-for-3, Gessell was 3-for-4 with a double and Ryan Bernal was 2-for-3.
For the National, Joey Schulman went 2-for-4, and Franky Castillo was 2-for-2 with a double.
The American B team had a much tougher road to get to the finals after losing earlier in the season. The team had to win two games – one was a 13-7 nine-inning victory over King City on Saturday.
In that game, Hollister was down 6-4 with just three outs remaining, but they rallied for two runs to send the game into extra innings.
Jacob Tonascia started the inning with a double. With two outs, Mitch Huston had a base hit to bring in a run. Cody Cameron had a hit, but King City quickly relayed the ball to prevent a run. But Nate Garza came up with a big hit to bring in the tying run.
After a scoreless seventh, Hollister got a run in the eighth with an RBI by Garza, but King City answered right back with a run in the bottom of the inning.
In the ninth inning, Richard Beltran juiced up the Americans with a ledoff home run. Tonascia had a two-RBI triple, and Nathan DelReal followed with a triple. By the time they were done hitting, they put six runs on the board to put the game out of reach.
Ray Rueda came in to pitch the final inning and allowed just one runner to reach on an error. Taylor Dukes pitched six innings in the middle of the game and allowed just one run.
On Sunday, Hollister American B defeated Hartnell B 13-3. Hartnell had rallied to get within 7-4, but Hollister scored six runs in the fifth inning to end the game. The closing blow was a bases-loaded triple over the first base bag by Anthony O’Campo to end the game.
Beltran was 4-for-4 with three RBIs in the game. Tonascia hit a shot that the center fielder jumped up on and got a glove on but it fell, limiting him to just one base instead of extra bases.
Huston pitched all five innings.
Saturday
9-10’s – Hollister American B 13 – King City 7 (9 innings)
11-12’s – Hollister National 17 – Continental 4
11-12’s – Hollister American 8 – King City 5
Sunday
11’s – Hollister American 4 – Hollister National 3 (7 innings)
11-12’s – Hollister American 6 – Continental 1
9-10’s – Hollister American-A 13 – Hollister National-A 5
9-10’s – Hollister American-B 13 – Hartnell 3
UPCOMING GAMES:
Today
11-12’s – 5:30 p.m at Ferrasci – Hollister National vs. Hollister American
11’s – 5:30 p.m. at Continental – Hollister National vs. Hartnell
9-10’s – 7 p.m. at Hollister – Hollister National A vs. Hollister American B
Tuesday, July 13
11’s – 5:30 p.m. at Continental – Hollister American vs. TBA
9-10’s – 7 p.m. at Hollister – Hollister American-A vs. Hollister National A or Hollister American B
