Sports

Little League All Stars: Danville 11s Open Section Tournament With 4-0 Win

The defending Northern California champions will play again Monday at 5:30 in Union City.

The Star: Ryan Bowman was 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and an RBI and logged a perfect fifth inning on the mound.

The Turning Point: Danville was in complete control from the start. It got at least two base runners in each inning, while allowing just one Newark American base runner reach second base.

The Quote: "It's very important to us that we have another run like last year," Danville starting pitcher Darroch Koel said. 

What's next? Danville will play the winner of Sunday's game between Union City National (District 45) and Tracy American (District 67)/Palo Alto American (District 52) at 5:30 on Monday at Union City American.

Find out what's happening in Danvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Bottom Line: The defending Northern California champions logged their fifth-straight shutout victory while opening the Section 3 11-year-old All Star Tournament with a 4-0 win against Newark American.

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Find out what's happening in Danvillewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

If there has been one constant during the Danville Little League 11-year-old All Star team's season thus far, it has been the consistency of its pitching staff.

The District 57 champions opened up play in the Section 3 Tournament in Union City on Saturday in the same fashion they did in their final four games in District play — with a shutout victory.

"The pitching staff has been very, very good," Danville manager Mark Dawson said. "It has been the strong suit of our team."

No kidding.

Since its 19-9 win against Granada to open District play, Danville pitchers have combined to throw 28-straight scoreless innings and didn't allow a Newark American runner past second base in its 4-0 win on Saturday.

Starting pitcher Darroch Koel allowed a pair of hits and stuck out four in 2 2/3 scoreless inning before giving way to Nick Venezia, who was just as good over the next inning and a third. Ryan Bowman and Connor Redmond followed with no-hit innings in the final two frames to keep the shutout intact. 

Danville's first three hitters of the game — Venezia, Bowman and Jared Dawson — all singled, but only Bowman would score thanks to a sacrifice-fly from Jack Morgan. Danville tacked on runs in the second, fourth and fifth to advance to the winners' bracket championship game Monday at 5:30 at Union City American Little League.

It will play the winner of Sunday's game between Union City National (District 45) and either Tracy American (District 67) or Palo Alto American (District 52).

As well as Danville hit and pitched, it left something to be desired with a rough day on the base paths. 

"Everyone can do a better jobs on the bases, coaches include," said Dawson, who made contact with one of his runners going around third, which took a Danville run off the board in the fifth. "I can laugh at myself now, but like I told the kids, it's what you do after you make mistakes to make sure they don't repeat is what matters."

Redmond took matters into his own hands in the fifth scoring on a wild pitch for Danville's final run of the game. Initially, it looked like the ball bounced back to the Newark American catcher, but after it skipped away Redmond took off for the plate and scored easily.

The core group of the team was a part of the 10-year-old squad which won the Northern California championship a year ago.

"It's very important to us that we have another run like last year," Koel said. "We work very hard in practice."

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Danville 4, Newark American 0

Danville 110 110 — 4 11 0
Newark American 000 000 — 0 4 2


Danville (ab-r-h) — Venezia 4-0-2, Bowman 4-1-3, Dawson 4-0-2, Koel 4-0-0, Morgan 2-0-0, Redmond 3-1-2, Lonester 2-0-0, Bartnick 1-0-0, Batza 1-0-0, Facteau 1-1-0, Banks 2-0-2, De Flores 0-1-0. 

Pitching

Danville: Koel 2.2 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 4 K; Venezia 1.1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 3 K; Bowman 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K; Redmond 1 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 1 BB, 1 K.
Hitting

2B — Bowman 2, Venezia, Redmond. RBIs — Bowman, Morgan.

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