With teams from Southern California, Northern California, and Arizona, the battle for the Travelball Select Super Regional was an intense one. Thirty teams threw their hats in the rings, but only one from each division could advance to the Travelball National Championship.
10-Under:
Everyone wants to get a couple RBI's in a game. It's even better when you knock a couple in with a home run. Every once in a while, you get an RBI opportunity with the bases loaded, and very rarely, do you get to knock in everyone with a Grand Slam. Doing that once wasn't enough for 10-Year Pablo from the California Rays, so he hit two Grand Slams in the Ray's first game of the tournament, lifting them to a 14-3 victory, and starting their incredible weekend of baseball. This incredible feet has only been accomplished by 13 professional baseball players in the history of the game, and he joins such players as Nomar Garciaparra and Robin Ventura (Fernando Tatis was the only player to do it in the same inning). Not bad company to have.
Pablo wasn't the only one knocking in runs though. The California Rays were crushing the ball at the plate, and playing tight defense all weekend. Scoring 37 runs and only giving up 8 through four games, they clinched the National Championship berth with a 4-0 weekend.
11-Under:
The SGV Hustle have continually produced some of the top teams in the country across all age groups. Put up against some of the top teams in the division, they hit the ground running and never looked back. Winning the first two games of Pool Play in convincing fashion, they advanced to Sunday as the 1st Seed.
All too often, a team that advanced as the 1st Seed to Sunday gets caught on their heals, and can easily be upset by a lower seed. The SGV Hustle weren't inclined to let that happen. Facing the 5th Seed in the Semifinals, they put up 8 runs while holding their opponents to just three. In the Championship game, they faced the 2nd Seed, and the only team in the bracket that they hadn't played yet. With the clean sweep in their sights, they put up another 8 runs and held the 2nd Seed to just 3. Outscoring teams 42-10 over the course of the weekend, the SGV Hustle easily advanced to the National Championship.
12-Under:
Did the LaMorinda Spartans save their pitching for Sunday's playoffs, or did they just not have a good day on Saturday? We'll never know, but what we do know his how they played on Sunday. Holding back on Saturday or not, they were the 8th Seed and had to come back on Sunday and face the 1st Seed Diamond Stingrays. The Stingrays only gave up 3 runs in Saturday's games, so the Spartans had their work cut out for them.
Finally finding their bats, they outlasted the Stingrays for the 8-6 upset. Finally finding their groove, the Spartans won their Semifinal game 8-0 to advance to the finals. Their Championship game was a rematch of their first game of the tournament. The Mustangs Grey had beat the Spartans 8-4 on Saturday. The Spartans were on fire though and looking for revenge. They put up 12 runs, more runs than they scored all of Saturday, and won the Championship Berth 12-4.
13-Under:
The 13-Under divisions had teams from three different areas vying for the National Championship Berth. Teams from Southern California, Northern California, and Arizona were battling for the chance to advance to the next round.
The Championship in the end became a battle of California. The Nor Cal Grizzlies and the Cal Lumberjacks Black were both 3-0 leading into the Championship game. The Grizzlies pitching was able to outlast that of the Lumberjacks, and the Grizzlies cruised to an 8-0 victory, and will be bringing their talents to the National Championship.
Thank you to all the teams that participated in our first Travelball Select tournament, and best of luck to all the teams that advanced to the National Championship.
See you on the fields
-AC
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