Alpine advances to District 52 Little League All-Stars 12s baseball semifinals

Brock got Alpine on the board in the second inning with a booming two-run home run against one of the most feared arms in the tournament, American right-hander Jacob Armstrong. Three batters later, Sam Kroll went deep to center with a two-run blast to put Alpine ahead 4-0.

“It was big,” Alpine manager John Brock said. “Because Jacob, on their team, is a really talented pitcher, and they’re a really good team. So, we wanted to get on the board and play with a lead, and so I think it really pumped everybody up to do it with [Tommy Brock’s] home run and to get out early. And then Sam followed him up.”

With 10 Alpine batters getting in the hit column, and the team now batting .429 in the tournament, Tommy Brock led the way, going 3 for 3 with three RBIs. On the mound, the right-handed reliever added 2 2/3 scoreless innings to bridge it from the starting pitcher Kroll’s 2 1/3 innings, and reliever Brandon Pyle’s one inning to close it out.

Tommy Brock has faced Armstrong before on the travel ball circuit, with Brock playing for the Peninsula Rays and Armstrong for the West Coast Federals. Brock said he previously had one hit against the fireballing right-hander, but that Armstrong’s velocity had dictated those travel ball at-bats.

Saturday, after Jacob Mallori reached on an infield error to lead off the second, Tommy Brock was reminded of that velocity when he took a blazing first-pitch fastball. When he got another heater on the second pitch, he jumped on it, though he wasn’t sure he got enough of it to get it over the wall.

“It felt really good,” Tommy Brock said. “It was really high. I’ve only had one more home run in the scrimmages, and it was a lot lower. It’s just kind of strange. Normally when I’m hitting, I’m more of a line-drive, low hitter. And it was like: ‘Is that going to be a pop out to the center fielder? Or is that going to fly?’”

Because he wasn’t sure if he got all of it, Tommy Brock went tearing out of the batter’s box. It wasn’t until he was rounding first base that the ball cleared the wall by approximately 10 feet.

“I was like: ‘Oh my God! I just hit one out against probably one of the fastest pitchers I’ve ever faced!’” Tommy Brock said.

Armstrong worked three innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on five hits. He threw 47 pitches, meaning he is unavailable to pitch again until Tuesday.

“We thought about possibly pulling him out a little sooner ... but we’re confident with our pitching staff,” San Mateo American manager Anthony Stoloski said. “We have a lot of kids that can pitch; everyone can pitch. So, we’re confident going into the losers’ bracket. We were hoping to get some runs and put a comeback with Jacob still out there, but the bats just didn’t wake up.”

American got one run back in the bottom of the third when Dom Speight drew a leadoff walk, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch then raced home on a passed ball. But after Shoma Adams drew a one-out walk, the Alpine defense stepped up with its first of two double plays on the day.

The inning-ending twin killing in the third hinged on an impressive pivot by the first baseman Pyle, who glove a bounder near the line and hurried to the first-base bag, then stepped up to give himself a line to throw to second, and pivoted to throw a strike to second base for shortstop Jack Schneider to glove the throw right at the bag to apply the tag.

“[Pyle’s] a very natural fielder,” John Brock said. “He transitions from fielding the ball to making the throw really quickly.”

After upping the lead to 5-1 in the fourth after a single to right from Connor Murphy, Alpine turned in another double play in the in the fifth 6-3 on a grounder over the middle to Schneider.

“There just aren’t a lot of double plays turned in Little League,” John Brock said. “And I think we’ve had a couple in this tournament, which is not really the norm for us. And it’s just the ball hit hard to the right guy at the right time.”

Alpine put the game out of reach with four runs in the top of the sixth. Schneider and Ryan Cohen produced back-to-back RBI doubles, Tommy Brock singled home a run then later scored on an RBI groundout by Pyle. American pushed a run across in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk by Ian Kim, but Pyle closed it out with a strikeout to strand the bases loaded.

American now faces a tough test in order to make a run at the District 52 championship. American started down that road with a 9-3 win Sunday over Redwood City. Next up, American faces Hillsborough Monday at 4 p.m.

“Now, it’s a big pitch-count game,” Stoloski said. “Four games, you’ve got to win four games, and you’ve got to win every day.”

Alpine advances through the winners’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament, and will face Pacifica Monday night at 6:30 p.m. The winner will move on to the championship round, starting Wednesday.

Pacifica powers past Menlo-Atherton

Jack Delgadillo connected for a grand slam home run in the third inning, and Pacifica powered to a 12-0 mercy-rule win over Redwood City in the winners’ bracket quarterfinals of the District 52 Little League All-Stars 12s baseball tournament Saturday at Middlefield Ballpark.

MJ Spears Jr. got P-Town on the board in the second with a line-drive home run to center field. Pacifica went on to score three in the second, four in the third on Delgadillo’s second home run of the tournament, and five in the fourth. Reliever Aiden White, pitching in relief of starter Miles Tevis, closed out the mercy-rule win in the bottom of the fourth.

Delgadillo added a two-run single in the fourth, and finished 2 for 3 with a homer and six RBIs. Hunter Potencion added two hits with an RBI, and Aiden Fitzpatrick had a single and two RBIs. Luhk Pinon paced Menlo-Atherton with two hits, and is now 5 for 5 with a double, a triple and two RBIs in the tournament.

Hillsborough topped Menlo-Atherton 15-12 in an elimination barnburner Sunday afternoon.