Tracy Press

 
Tracy American makes comeback in Section 3 tourney

during their 9- and 10-year-olds tournament play Thursday. Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

The hits that the Tracy 9-10 American All-Star team needed finally came through Friday and kept the local team alive in the Little League Northern California Section 3 playoffs at Monticello School.

Tracy American highlighted its 12-3 win over the Union City Little League All-Stars of District 45 with a six-hit, seven-run fifth inning to stretch out the lead.

“Our bats showed up today,” manager Bruce Russell said. “We played like we’ve been playing: Good defense and no errors.”

Tracy needs to keep winning if it wants to take the section championship. The team lost its first game 3-2 on Thursday against District 52’s Alpine-Menlo Park Little League All-Stars. Tracy plays Newark American from District 14 at 11 a.m. today, and the winner of that game will play Alpine in the championship game Sunday. If Alpine loses Sunday, a second game will be played Monday. All of those games will be played at Jefferson School.

Tracy got 13 hits against Union City on Friday, four of them from Noah Denoyer, who also scored three times and batted in two. Dylan Von Hartman was 2-for-4, with a double in the first inning to get a three-run rally started.

Tracy’s batters went to work in the fifth inning when Denoyer led off with a single up the middle, followed by a double out to the center-field fence from Nick Medina. Jacob Rebar hit a two-run double down the right-field line to score two. Tracy also got a two-run double from Robbie Ramirez, and Justin Mills and Von Hartman also knocked in runs.

It was a contrast to Thursday’s game, when Alpine pitchers struck out eight batters and held Tracy to four hits. Tracy scored its runs in the third inning on a string of hits from Ramirez, Mills and Von Hartman, who hit a double to drive in Tracy American’s runs.

Tracy’s 10-11 National team is also in the running for a Section 3 championship after winning its first game Friday afternoon at Los Cerros School in Alamo. Tracy National beat District 14’s Newark American, 11-5, and will play the Danville Little League All-Stars this morning.

Manager Rick Helzer said Anthony Nunez pitched 52/3 innings and struck out seven. Aaron Denholm closed the game. Juan Velazquez was 2-for-3 and drove in four of Tracy’s runs.

Denholm also had two base hits and scored twice, and Braeden Oki got a base hit and scored three times.

The Section 3 Major League All-Star tournament is also being played at Jefferson School. As of Friday afternoon, teams from San Lorenzo, Pleasanton, Hillsboro and Manteca are vying for the section championship.

• We want to hear what you have to say. Comment on this story at www.tracypress.com, or to reach Sports Editor Bob Brownne, call 830-4227 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments