12U Little League stars post 4-1 record to win title
Modesto – The Hollister Young Guns 12-and-under baseball team, comprised of local Little Leaguers, won the Labor Day tournament at Rainbow Fields in Modesto this past weekend.
The Young Guns, coached by Scott Ito, Marty Bueno, Joe Tonascia and Adam Breen, began the tournament against the Turlock Rangers. Turlock jumped to a 3-0 lead after a half-inning, but Hollister answered in the bottom of the inning after Michael Bocksnick reached on a bunt single and stole second and third base.
Rob Soto drew a walk and Michael Breen reached on an error to score Bocksnick. Jacob Tonascia followed with a groundball that plated Soto and made the score 3-2.
Turlock tacked on a run in the second to increase its lead to 4-2, but Hollister broke it open in the third as it sent 11 batters to the plate. Bocksnick reached on another infield single, stole his third and fourth bases of the game, and scored on Soto’s groundout. Back-to-back singles by Breen and Tonascia were followed by an RBI single by Dalan Hoskins, which tied the game at 4-4.
Dylan Lomanto’s bunt single scored Breen and Dylan Ito’s groundout drove in Tonascia to put the Young Guns up 6-4. Hoskins and Lomanto each scored on passed balls to put Hollister in front 8-4 after three innings.
Turlock scratched out single runs in the fourth and fifth innings, but Hollister kept its opponent at bay with another run in the fifth to secure the 9-6 win.
In Game Two, pitchers Soto, Tonascia, and Andrew Breen combined on a four-inning no-hitter as the Young Guns blew past the Clovis Slam in a game that was shortened by the 15-run mercy rule. Bocksnick scored three times, Michael Breen and Justin Patterson each had three RBIs, and Hoskins, Lomanto, and Patterson each had two hits for Hollister.
In the third game of the tournament, Hollister lost to the Bay Area Blazers 9-3 despite a two-run homer by Tonascia. Hollister’s 2-1 record in pool play earned it the No. 2 seed entering the championship round, which set up a rematch with Turlock in the semifinals.
The Young Guns jumped to an early lead in familiar fashion, with Bocksnick reaching on a walk, stealing second and third base, and scoring on a sacrifice fly by Soto. Michael Breen then walked, stole second, and scored on a Hoskins single to put the locals up 2-0. The Rangers scored two runs in the second and one in the third to take a 3-2 lead, but Hollister came back in the fourth when Zach Nelson led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice bunt by Tony Diaz.
Breen blanked Turlock in the top of the fifth and sixth innings, keeping the score at 3-3. In the bottom of the sixth, Tonascia walked and courtesy runner Dylan Ito was bunted to second by Hoskins to put the win within reach. Ito then stole third and scored the winning run on a wild pitch to send Hollister to the championship game.
In the final, Breen retired the Blazers on 10 pitches in the top of the first before Soto doubled in the bottom of the inning, then stole third and home to put Hollister up 1-0. Breen walked, stole second and third, and scored on a Tonascia ground-rule double to make the score 2-0.
Those two runs were all that Hollister would need on this night as relievers Lomanto and Soto scattered three hits over the next five innings and allowed one unearned run while leading the Young Guns to the tournament title.
