San Francisco Little League

A night after beating a very tough Mill Valley team in the semi-final game,  SF American closed the deal on Wednesday night,  defeating Novato South 5-2 for the District 3 championship before a capacity crowd at Boyle Field in Mill Valley.  With the victory,  SFA became only the second San Francisco 12’s team to win the District 3 title.  SF’s only other 12’s title came in 2006.You can look up the source at http://www.unpage.org/california/ca-d3.htm.

Many of SFA’s wins on the march to the title were not easy and this game was no different.  Novato South jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning. SFA trailed 1-0 until the top of the third inning, when RBI doubles by Adam Singer and Jacob Shaw gave SFA a 2-1 lead. Anthony Gonzales then crushed an outside fastball over the right-center field fence for a two run homer and SFA suddenly led 4-1.  

Clayton Read was again a major factor in SFA’s win.  Coach John Balladares called upon Read to pitch in the third inning.  Calmly,  Read ended a Novato South rally.  In the fourth,  NS got a single run to make the score 4-2,  but stranded two runners. In the fifth inning,  Read did his thing with the bat,  lacing an RBI double down the third base line to make the score 5-2.  That is all the runs he would need.  Read set down NS 1-2-3 in the fifth inning.  In the sixth,  NS got a one-out single to make things interesting.  Read, however, induced the next batter to hit a ground ball to SS Brandon Balladares,  who calmly stepped on second and threw to first for a game-ending and championship clinching double-play. At that point,  the celebration was on.

SFA now advances to the Section 1 tourney in Lafayette. SFA’s first game will be Saturday at 2 pm.  SFA  “All The Way!”