July 11, 2008

PV 11s Eliminate SFLL, 9-7; Unbeaten BR Next

After a one-day hiatus because of poor air quality, the District 11 Area II tournament for 11-year-old All-Stars resumed at Western Gateway Park Thursday and the squads from host Penn Valley and Sierra Foothills of Colfax gave baseball fans their money’s worth.

In a contest that see-sawed back and forth all evening, Penn Valley used Dalton Maxwell’s top of the sixth inning double that scored Jesse Donahue for the go-ahead run in an eventual 9-7 win over SFLL.

The victory keeps Penn Valley still alive in the double elimination tournament. PV will now face undefeated Bear River tonight at 5:30 p.m. at Western Gateway in the Area II first championship game.

PV, with a loss on its resume, needs a win this evening to force an “if necessary” game on Saturday for Area II honors.

Despite some strong early pitching from Justin Boice, SFLL trailed 2-0 early in the game before coming back to tie the game.

Logan Hurst and Taylor Avila both connected for singles in the third inning and then were both chased home by Mason Lewis’ two-run base rap that knotted the count.

However, Penn Valley capitalized in the top of the fourth when a walk, an error and a Jimmy Fowler single enabled the hosts to grab a 4-2 advantage.

SFLL then kept the pressure on by erupting for five tallies in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Providing the damage for SFLL were Lewis and Jake Buol who stroked back-to-back doubles and singles by Greg Painter, Tommy Tye and Boice.

After PV came back to tie and take the lead in the top of the sixth, SFLL’s Tye (2x4) and Blake Rawlings (2x2) both stroked hits in the bottom of the frame but the Colfax team couldn’t push them around the bags.