Beacon Correspondent
Mark Lourenzo
Beacon Correspondent
Both the Eel River All Star Baseball and Softball teams experienced a bad case of those championship game blues last week as district titles slipped away in multiple big game situations. Like a heavy blues riff that just hits home on your state of mind, ERV was left with that sinking feeling as they came up short in championship games at the 12 year old boys level, 9-10 year old girls and 11-12 year old girls softball.
The district's 12 year old boys baseball division at nine teams coming in was the largest bracket of any of the All Star tournaments. Eel River figured they would have a strong team and in the first round they shelled Southern Humboldt 10-0 for a good start to the tourney. However, ERV wasn't the only strong team in the tourney and in the second round they suffered a setback losing to Arcata, 4-0. The Arcata pitcher was a curveball specialist and the ERV bats went silent. Trevor Porter took the loss despite a strong performance on the mound.
Eel River rebounded in the losers bracket and exploded on Del Norte for 14 runs to stay alive in the tourney. Nate Ambrosini started on the mound and gave up one run in 4 innings,
In perhaps their best game of the tournament the boys from ERV took on McKinleyville the following day and won a thriller. The game was tight throughout and after five innings the pressure was building thanks to a 5-5 score. Bryant Head led off the 6th with a double and one out later Ambrosini's RBI ground out gave ERV the run they needed.
Porter had pitched a wail of a game and he finished McKinleyville's hopes by striking out the side in the final inning, preserving the 5-4 win. Porter pitched the complete game victory, striking out 8 and also went 3-4 at bat with two doubles and a homer.
The team that had handed them the earlier round loss, Arcata, awaited Eel River in the semifinal matchup on Friday. Eel River set the tone early and scored three quick runs with the big blows being Bryant Head's double and Jaime McCrigler's single. Head started on the mound for ERV and pitched 5 strong innings. Only in the 2nd inning did he run into trouble as a series of plays turned the lead back to Arcata 4-3. Eel River tied it back up in the 3rd at four apiece and the game stayed knotted up until the 5th inning.
A series of wild pitches by Arcata combined with a double by Trevor Porter gave ERV a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the inning. Head finished out his stint on the mound and Nate Ambrosini took over for the final inning of play. Despite a couple of walks, a single and some nervous moments, Ambrosini and his teammates hung on for the 6-5 win and the berth in the championship game.
As well as Eel River had played to get to the Saturday morning championship game it would have been great to see another great game when they took on the powerhouse Redwood Empire. Perhaps it was too many games over the span of a week but everything that could go wrong did for ERV and Redwood Empire won going away, 16-0. A well rested Redwood Empire had their ace pitcher in Zach Stone and he was impressive, striking out 8 batters in four innings. Redwood Empire smacked four homeruns and that was that.
The Eel River All Stars 11-12 year old girls softball team also had a great run through their tournament. ERV beat McKinleyville (14-5) and Del Norte (5-3) to open their tourney last week. They sustained a 3rd round loss to Redwood Empire in a slugfest, 13-9 and were sent to the losers side of the bracket. ERV then bounced back with another offensive showing, getting the best of Southern Humboldt in the semifinals 13-8. The win catapulted ERV back into the championship game versus, you guessed it, Redwood Empire.
Eel River got some measure of revenge on Redwood Empire by winning game one of the championship series, 10-3. It would however take two wins by ERV over the previously unbeaten Redwood Empire to win the title. It was not meant to be as the following day ERV could not pull off the sweep and they came up short by the narrowest of margins, 3-2.
Merritt Schonhofer pitched and batted like an All Star during the tournament as she won two games on the mound and hit extra base hits in literally every contest. Kaitie Sigler pitched well for ERV when called upon also playing excellent defense at shortstop and getting some key hits. Danielle Hansen pitched her team to the 10-3 win over RE in that elimination game and all the girls put forth a terrific effort.
Not to be outdone the ERV 9-10 year olds also made it through to the championship game of their softball tournament. After a opening round forfeit win over Klamath Trinity, ERV smacked Del Norte by the score of 18-3. The girls won over McKinleyville 14-4 to gain a berth in the title game and took on Redwood Empire for the championship. Morgan Harwood pitched her team into contention and ERV held a 1-0 lead until the final inning of the title contest. Redwood Empire scratched out a run in that final inning to tie it and added one more to win it in the extra frame as ERV came so close to the title they could taste it.
In the end Redwood Empire had taken advantage of playing on their home field to win the two divisions of the softball championships and the one boys title in the tournaments they had hosted. For Eel River it was just a bad case of those championship game blues!
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