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Sports

Babe Ruth: Tri-Valley 14s roll past Westchester

Dronkers' dominant performance leads Tri-Valley over Southern California in second round of Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament.

Tri-Valley 11, Westchester (Southern California) 1

Second round, Babe Ruth 14-year-old Pacific Southwest Regional

Surprise, Ariz.

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The Star: Jake Dronkers put together a solid outing, striking out eight to go with his four RBIs.

The Turning Point: Tri-Valley scored three runs in the second to set the tone for the rest of the game.

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The Quote: "We hit the ball really well tonight," manager Paul Pluschkell said. "All the kids had their legs back. It was a much better effort."

Who's Next?: Tri-Valley has Thursday off and will face Hawaii, which defeated Santa Maria (Central California), on Friday in the winners' bracket.

The Bottom Line: If Tri-Valley beats Hawaii, it moves into the tournament semifinals.

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Imagine the score if Tri-Valley ace Jake Dronkers devotes the same amount of attention to his hitting as he does pitching.

"Usually when I'm pitching, I don't focus on my hitting because I want to focus on one thing, but today it just came together," he said. "I got good pitches to hit and I just went with it and I tried to help myself out and just get some runs in."

The right-hander had a game-high four RBIs in addition to eight strikeouts in a dominant performance on Wednesday, leading the Tri-Valley 14-year-old All-Stars over Westchester (Southern California) 11-1 in five innings.

"He did everything," manager Paul Pluschkell said. "With Jake Dronkers on the mound, we feel like we can win any game."

The ace also kept his poise on the hill. With the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning, Dronkers struck out the Westchester batter to keep the shutout intact.

"I was thinking 'I got to get this kid to ground out, fly out. I have to get him' and I ended up getting the strikeout and it really ended up helping us and we got back in the dugout and started hitting again," Dronkers said.

Sam Nathan, pinch running for Dronkers, and Casey Soltis scored on consecutive passed balls and Daniel Jackson hit a two-run double to center to bring home Noah Robbins and Ryan Anderson in the fourth inning.

"We put the bat on the ball," Pluschkell said. "That's the whole difference of the game. We hustled. We executed. We can hit up and down our lineup. And yesterday we didn't hit well. Today, we hit pretty well. That's what we do."

Dronkers struggled with control issues in the bottom of the fifth inning and was taken out of the game.

"It was tough at the end," he said. "They kind of got on me. I tried my best throughout the whole game and tried to deliver for my team."

Tri-Valley has Thursday off and will meet Hawaii for a berth in the tournament semifinals.

"Momentum is always important," Dronkers said. "We are just going to try our hardest every game ... Just go hard and hustle. That's how it's going to be and we're going to do good."

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Tri-Valley 11, Westchester 1

Tri-Valley 030 44 — 11 12 0   

Westchester 000 01 — 1 1 2 

Tri-Valley — Sprugasci 4-1-2, Soltis 4-3-2, Dronkers 4-2-3, Robbins 4-1-1, Anderson 4-2-1, Jackson 4-1-1, Vincent 3-1-1, Franco 3-0-1, Santos 3-0-0, Gomez 1-0-0. Totals 34-11-12.

Pitching

Tri-Valley — Dronkers  IP, R, ER, H, 8 K, 4 BB.

Hitting

2B — Dronkers, 2; Jackson (Tri-Valley).

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