July 14, 2008

Bear River 11s Stand Tall In Defeat

It was a bittersweet weekend for the Bear River 11-year-old All-Star baseball team.

After looking impressive in rolling past Penn Valley, 15-3, on Friday night to win the District 11 Area II championship, the south county squad reeled under the heavy bat work of a potent Tri-City team on Saturday and Sunday in the district championship series.

Bear River dropped a 12-8 Game 1 decision to Tri-City in Penn Valley on Saturday evening before running out of gas in Rocklin on Sunday and coming out on the short end of a 14-4 count in Game 2.

Despite the double setback in the title series, Bear River manager Randy Anderson had nothing but praise to heap on his club.

“Even though we were down by a big deficit the team treated the contest just like it was a one run game the whole way,” said Anderson, “All the players picked each other up and were still excited about every at-bat, hit and run scored.”

Anderson went on to add,  “ At the end of the game the team knew that they had given it their all. As one player put it, This is the best loss we ever had.”

Standing out in the Game 2 setback were Isaac Van Patten with a triple and a RBI, Brett Solomon with a hit, sacrifice and a RBI and Dayton Anderson with a sacrifice for another RBI.

Tri-City was led by Logan Webb who shined on the mound and racked up nine strikeouts. Tri-City also nullified Bear River’s attempt to play “small ball” by turning in a fine defensive game behind Webb.

In closing, Anderson noted that the Bear River team was a fun group to be around.

“They’re all winners,” said Anderson. “They deserve all the praise and credit for what they accomplished this season. I’m expecting exciting things from them next year.”

Bear River 15 Penn Valley 3 – Travis Whitehead and Nick Mansuetti both went 3x3 and combined to drive in seven runs and Derek Adelman added another clutch RBI as Bear River flew past Penn Valley in Friday’s Area II finals.

Also delivering big blows to the offense for Bear River were Matt Lopez (2x3, 3 RBIs), Dayton Anderson (2x3, 2B), Tyler Toft (2x4, RBI), Nick O’Connor (2x3), Martin Vigil (1x2, 2B, RBI), Isaac Van Patten (1x1) and Kyle Soria (1x4).