Little League All Stars: Run Comes to an End for Danville 12s

The Star: San Ramon's Mikey Pangelinan, who went 2 for 3 with a two-run homer, scored two runs and had a pair of RBIs.

The Turning Point: Pangelinan's two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth gave San Ramon a 6-5 lead it wouldn't relinquish.

The Quote: "They battled back and didn't give up," Danville coach Brent Hughes said. "I just give credit to them (San Ramon)."

What's next? Danville's season will continue in local tournaments.

Bottom Line: Danville simply ran into a better San Ramon team.

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It fought until the bitter end, but the Danville Little League 11-12 year-old Little All-Star team came up short in a 7-6 loss to San Ramon in the championship game of the District 57 Tournament at Osage Park Wednesday evening.

"I give all the credit to San Ramon," Danville coach Brent Hughes said. "We pitched the guys we wanted to pitch. We battled back and didn't give up."

This was the second time Danville lost to San Ramon in the 13-team, double-elimination tournament. The first one came in which it took four innings for Danville to even record a hit.

This time, Danville came out swinging. Despite being down 1-0 after the first inning, Danville struck for a pair of runs to take a 2-1 lead.

Brian Barcellona walked with one out. Jake Hughes relieved Barcellona at first as the special pinch runner. Riley Moore singled off the glove of second baseman Rocky Moore to put runners at first and second. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Joey Spears (3 for 4) delivered a two-out, two-run single up the middle.

But Danville couldn't hold the lead for long as it yielded a three-run bottom of the second and found itself trailing 4-2.

Again, back came the defending section champs with a two-run third inning. And again the rally came with two outs as Clayton Tennant delivered an RBI double to left which scored Hughes for the first run. Three batters later, Jake Lloyd had an infield hit which scored Tennant and tied the game at 4-4.

After holding San Ramon scoreless in the bottom of the third, Danville took a 5-4 lead in the fourth when Joe Vranesh (2 for 2) doubled to right that scored Ryan Murhpy.

But Danville didn't hold on to that lead for long as San Ramon's Mikey Pangelinan hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the frame to give San Ramon a 6-5 lead, a lead it held the rest of the way.

San Ramon added a huge insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. And it needed it as Danville got to within 7-6 with a leadoff home run by Spears in the top of the sixth inning.

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San Ramon 7, Danville 6

Danville       022 101 – 6 8 1

San Ramon 130 21x -  7 9 2

Danville (ab-r-h) — Spears 4-1-3, Maroney 4-0-0, Murphy 4-1-0, Vranesh 2-0-2, Hughes 1-2-0, Polosky 3-0-0, Matulovich 1-0-0, Tennant 2-1-1, Barcellona 0-0-0, Whitten 1-0-0, Moore 3-1-1, Lloyd 2-0-1. Totals 27-6-8.

San Ramon (ab-r-h) — Jew 2-3-2, Pangelinan 3-2-2, Ackerman 2-0-1, Rocha 3-0-1, Ramirez 3-0-0, Gilfillan 1-0-0, Bagnall 1-0-0, Gerlach 1-1-1, Moore 3-1-2, Mendoza 2-0-0, Holden 2-0-0, Caston 1-0-0. Totals 24-7-9.

Pitching

Polosky: 4 ip, 6 h, 6 r, 6 er, 4 bb, 6 k; Tennant: 1 ip, 3 h, 1 r, 1 er, 0 bb, 1 k.

Rocha: 2 2/3, 5 h, 4 r, 3 er, 4 bb, 5 k; Mendoza: 3 1/3 ip, 3 h, 2 r, 1 er, 0 bb, 2 k, .

Hitting

RBIs — Spears 3, Rocha 2, Pangelinan 2, Moore, Tennant, Lloyd, Vranesh, Mendoza, Holden. 2B — Tennant, Gerlach. HR — Moore (Top 2, 0 out, 0 on), Pangelinan (Bottom 4, 0 out, 1 on), Spears (Top 6, 0 out, 0 on).