Bel-Mateo third in Northern California

And it’s for that reason the Babe Ruth Bel-Mateo 15-Under team can hold their heads high after a summer of baseball that ended after a loss to Tri-Valley at the state’s NorCal tournament.

"It’s a very short season,” said Bel-Mateo manager Chris Hammond. "We were together just about one month, but the team grew a lot as individuals and as a team. And that’s all we can ask for. They represented Babe Ruth and Bel-Mateo extremely well.”

Sure, there’s a bit of disappointment considering the NorCal tournament began with a pair of big wins against Vallejo and Ukiah — games where Bel-Mateo scored 29 runs.

But against Sonoma, Bel-Mateo lost that offensive feeling.

"Our bats just fell flat at the wrong time,” Hammond said. "Combined with a couple of physical errors, that opened the door [for Sonoma]. We competed, it was a tight ball game into the fifth and then the flood gates kind of opened when we were short on pitching at the end. The boys were still into it and honestly, our roster got shortened. We lost two pitchers and our starting catcher because of school commitments.”

Sonoma jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, fueled by an early walk and error. But Bel-Mateo jumped right back into the game in support of Spencer Larsen by scoring three runs to take the lead. Unfortunately for Bel-Mateo, after Larsen was removed from the game, the wheels completely fell off.

"Our defense came up short,” Hammond said.

To make matters worse, the loss set up a do-or-die game against the two-time defending champion in Tri-Valley.

Morgan Monashefsky kept Bel-Mateo in the game early on, but the reigning champions pulled away in the fifth and went up 6-1. It then scored seven more in the sixth inning against a depleted Bel-Mateo roster.

Hammond said Larsen and Monashefsky took their games to another level for Bel-Mateo during the summer.

"Spencer Larsen really stepped up as our No. 1,” Hammond said. "He showed that he could compete at a very high level. Morgan Monashefsky gave his team a chance to compete. We had great contributions from Mitchell Wright, Isaiah Todd-Fitzhugh who was a strength in the 3-hole, and players like Zack Pace who batted ninth for most of the summer, but was in the lineup every day.”

Hammond said the game against Tri-Valley got chippy, with several hit batsmen as the contest got into its latter stages. With hitters being plunked left and right, plus some choice words by the opposing manager, Bel-Mateo kept their cool — so much so that they were recognized after the tournament by the director for their sportsmanship.

"This Bel-Mateo team showed a lot,” Hammond said. "They’re accomplished ball players. The way they played the game and how they went about it in all their games, they showed a lot of pride and represented the community really well.”