It was two and done for the Turlock National Little League 12-year-old All-Stars in the District 73 tournament this past weekend that saw them drop back-to-back games to Los Banos and Atwater from Julien on Saturday and ending the tourney run on Sunday afternoon.
“We told the kids we were proud cause they kept fighting all game long,” said Turlock National head coach Matt Day. “We had some errors that cost us, but we felt proud that this is a strong group of boys, just errors cost us, in all-stars errors can cost us. We thought we would have no problem coming back on Sunday, but obviously that wasn’t the case.”
In the first game on Saturday, both Turlock and LB were evenly matched and the score proved it.
The first inning saw 12 runs altogether as they were tied at 6-6 heading into the start of the second.
The line drives were hit right at the opposition, for the most part, as they scored just four more runs in the next five innings.
“Battling back and forth, but six of our 10 runs came in the first inning,” said Day. “We left two runners on in the bottom of the six as the home team. Played from behind for the most part. Down a run or two most of the game.”
In the end they fell to LB, 11-10.
On Sunday, they turned around and faced Atwater in a win or go home situation.
Turlock went up 5-0 by the top of the third inning which was highlighted by a Ryder Scott three-run homer that was hit perfectly down the third-base line.
At that point they felt good, but the tables turned almost instantly as they tied the game at 5-5 by the end of the third.
Atwater notched four runs in the fifth inning and held Turlock scoreless as the game ended 9-5.
“They fought back and forth, just good hitting on their part and couple of errors on our part and that was a tighter game for us, played them tighter,” said Day. “We were hitting the ball, line drives got caught and both had second basemen that were on spot. We played good teams and scored 15 runs in two games. We just faced All-Stars which are the best of their town.”
Heading into the tournament, Turlock National felt strong with their roster that consisted of Carlos Beltran, Emir Cervantes, Grant Day, Kingston DeLeon, Marshall Gardner, Chase Martin, Colten Mauksch, Justin Mayfield, Carlos Naranjo, Abriel Padilla, Tommy Pagola, Israel Ruiz and Ryder Scott.
Four players were chosen from the Giants and three from the Mets.
“We had a solid group of ball players… I would say we had six ace pitchers… and we set it up where we tried to alternate every day knowing we would have to play every game,” Day added. “Good baseball players all around. I loved that group of boys, they got along great. I felt the chemistry was on cause sometimes it is not good. Just a tough break for us.”
