Beacon Correspondent
Eel River Valley Little League (ERV) played host to local All Star Tournaments in both boy's and girl's divisions that came to exciting conclusions last week. While the boys 9 and 10 year old bracket was resolved up in McKinleyville, Rohner Park in Fortuna was the site of the boys 11 year old division as well as the girls junior and senior divisions of All Star softball. If playing on your home field equates to even a slight edge, then ERV took full advantage as one run decisions clinched two division championships for the home team.
The junior division of girl's softball (ages 13-14) was represented by a small bracket of three local teams; Del Norte, McKinleyville and host Eel River Valley. No matter the size of the bracket the stakes remained high as the winner is crowned District 26 champs and moves on to play at the state level.
Del Norte was the first team bounced out of the double elimination tournament and McKinleyville advanced to the title game to face the ERV All Stars. Despite ERV beating McKinleyville 8-2 two days prior the title game proved to be a cliff-hanger.
ERV's Caylin Crivello and McKinleyville's Megan Boyd engaged in a pitchers duel and both would
The score would remain that way until the 6th inning when McKinleyville tied it up with a run in the top of the inning. Just as they had done earlier in the game, ERV answered back to take the lead in the bottom of the inning. An infield single by Crivello scored Nicole Nunez from 3rd base. Crivello then went back on the mound and silenced McKinleyville's bats one last time to secure the championship for ERV.
As elated team manager, ERV's Tina Smith praised her teams effort as well as the competition. "The girls really came through today and the game showed the character of all the girls involved in this tournament,” Smith exclaimed. As District 26 champions Eel River will move on to the state All Star tournament to commence the 16th of this month in Wheatland (near Sacramento).
A rousing competition also took place in the 11 year old bracket of boys Little League leading up to the championship game that took place on the same night (July 1) at Rohner Park in Fortuna. Eel River All Stars posted an opening round win over Redwood Empire 9-0 and followed that up with a 13-9 win over McKinleyville in a slugfest.
ERV came through the brackets unscathed in the four team tournament and landed in the championship game against Redwood Empire who eliminated Arcata and McKinleyville in the losers bracket. The ERV All Stars went right to work in the title game and scored in the 1st inning.
Tyler Janoski opened the game with a walk and was in danger of being stranded on the basepaths when Chandler Wilson crushed a two out triple into right field. Wilson raced home on a wild pitch to the next batter and ERV held an early 2-0 lead. ERV would go one to add another run in the 2nd frame and was leading 3-0 and playing solid ball.
Ian Adams opened on the mound for the local team and was on his game pitching several strikeouts in his 4 innings of work. ERV survived a shaky 3rd inning in the field when they gave up two runs but Adams ended that Redwood Empire threat with a strikeout looking. Eel River regained momentum with 2 runs scored in the bottom of the 5th inning. Noah Sears double to center field proved to be the big blow in that rally and ERV upped the score to 5-2.
Riley Jones came on to pitch a 1-2-3 fifth inning and ERV looked poised to claim the championship without drama. However. it would be plenty of drama for the locals before this game was decided. In their final at bat, Redwood Empire came up with four base hits with two walks sandwiched in-between. Suddenly, ERV was in danger of losing the title they sought. With the score now 5-4, the bases loaded and only one out, the boys needed some baseball magic.
What they got was needed relief, as closing pitcher Conner Hider. Hider came on in a do-or-die situation and went to work. Needing to throw strikes but not to give up a hit either, Hider went full count to the next two batters and ended each showdown with a strikeout of the opposing batter. One could not have asked for more drama in the final inning of a championship game then what the fans got.
ERV manager Keith DeMello said of the post game that "most kids wouldn't want to be put in a position like that, but I knew he's (Hider) the kid that can go out and throw strikes" said DeMello. Holding his hand to his heart, "that was fun, wasn't it?"
DeMello added. Eel River Valley was crowned the District 26 Champions and earned the honor to go to Chico to compete in the state Tournament of Champions. The boys will open the tournament on the 19th on this month facing the championships from District Two at 3 p.m.
Eureka Babe Ruth will be hosting the state tournament for the 13 year old division of Babe Ruth this weekend. By virtue of their performance in the district tournament and Eureka's automatic berth as host of the tournament, Eel River Valley has received a berth as the district's representative and will play this Saturday versus the team from Antioch at 1 p.m.
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