The Turlock National Little League champions on the Majors level—the Marlins—are now in the semifinal round of the Tournament of Champions after back-to-back road wins despite losing their first contest.
The Marlins would lose to Atwater 6-5 in Monday’s opening game but the team recuperated and trounced Los Banos 11-5 on Tuesday.
Finally on Wednesday, the Marlins were able to take advantage of the Atwater squad this time around as they returned the favor and notched a 6-5 win on the road.
“I am proud of the kids performance on the road, experiencing there first tournament game,” said Marlins head coach Craig Redman.
Monday proved to be a bad ending after a nice start for the Marlins who came away with two runs early on in the first and then Atwater would counter with one in the second followed by two for the Marlins to go up 4-1.
Both teams went at it and countered each run with a run of their own as the score grew to 5-3 heading into the start of the fifth. By the time the fifth ended, Atwater had tied the game.
After a scoreless inning for the Marlins, Atwater would notch the game-winning run after a close play at home.
“It was a great game back and forth. Luke Redman started on the hill and Bryson Partida finished. Both threw very well,” said Redman.
In the second game against Los Banos on Tuesday, the Marlins would win rather easily after jumping on top early on, scoring three runs in the first three innings. The team kept the pressure on to win by six runs.
In the rematch of Monday’s game against Atwater, the Marlins finally were able to get the best of Atwater notching up a one-run victory.
Running short on pitchers, Josh Hack and brother Jared Hack would split the game decision on the mound.
The only time Atwater was able to score runs was their five in the third inning.
The Marlins kept their composure and a Luke Redman solo home-run—second of the game—would cut the lead to 5-4.
By the bottom of the fifth, down by one, the Marlins knew they would need big at-bats.
Bryce Martin led off with a single followed by a Lance Souza double off the wall. Josh Hack then beat out a possible fielder’s choice.
Luke Redman would then get an RBI sacrifice to tie the game at 5-5. Brady Gutierrez would walk to load up the bases for Chase Skubik, who sauced up the walk with a line drive between first and second base to win it.
“It has been a very busy, yet exciting few days having to play four games in four days. We will now visit Yosemite,” Redman said. “The kids have shown great resiliency and continue to play the game hard.”
