San Francisco Little League

SF American Captures District 3 Championship

07/16/2010, 8:26am (PDT)

By Mark Hazelwood

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!”

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SF American pounded out 13 runs on 10 hits in just three innings at the plate and defeated Ross Valley convincingly 13-2 in the District 3 quarterfinals on Monday night at Tepper Field. 

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning,  SFA struck back with three runs,  keyed by a two run triple by Clayton Read. This was the beginning of a great game for Read at the plate and on the mound.  In the bottom of the second,  Read was called upon to pitch and get SFA out of a  bases loaded- nobody out jam.  Read retired the next three batters, allowing only one run to score. 

In the bottom of the second,  Anthony Gonzales unloaded on the first pitch he saw and hit a three run homer to make the score 6-2.  In the bottom of the third, SFA sent 11 batters to the plate and scored seven runs to put the game out of reach.  The big blow was a grand slam by Read, who drove in six runs on the evening.

The win sends SFA to the District semi-finals on Tuesday night against  Mill Valley at Boyle Park in Mill Valley

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