Alpine advances to Nor Cal Little League All-Stars 12s semifinals

Through Alpine’s undefeated 9-0 summer run, the team has totaled 83 runs. Sunday’s 13-run output was their best single-game run total of the season.

“We hit awesome and, obviously, I’m really proud of them,” Alpine manager Dave Levinson said. “It was just super amazing.”

Dave Levinson’s nephew, Nolan Levinson, is a standout in more ways than one. The stature of the 6-foot, right-handed throwing, left-handed swinging 12-year-old is undeniable. Sunday he starred on the mound and at the plate, firing 2 1/3 innings to earn the win as the starting pitcher, while at the plate going 3 for 4 with a sixth-inning grand slam to cap the scoring.

With Nolan Levinson’s usage on the mound, Alpine continues to walk a pitch-count tightrope to allow him to pitch in as many games as possible. The big right-hander has now pitched in five games, though he was only maxed out his pitch count twice.

In the District 52 tournament, he made two pitching appearances, throwing 86 pitches against Hillsborough in the tourney opener and 68 pitches against San Mateo American in the semifinals. Then he started all three games of the Section 3 tournament, throwing 21 pitches against Newark and 37 against Bollinger Canyon in the semifinals, before working into the sixth inning by throwing 87 pitches against Bollinger Canyon in the championship game.

Sunday, Nolan Levinson threw 39 total pitches, but recorded a “soft pitch count” of 35, meaning that was the total he started with before he faced his final batter. Because he was credited with 35 pitches or less, he is able to pitch on one day’s rest, making him available for Tuesday’s semifinal.

“We kept him at 35, so he’s available for that Tuesday game against Maidu,” Dave Levinson said. “That’s kind of been our strategy in what is the third tournament now.”

This has been the game within the game Alpine has played to turn their most imposing player into a workhorse. It’s certainly critical in a seven-team tournament, in which it’s conceivable a team can total seven games through the elimination bracket, whereas navigating the winners’ bracket allows a team to play as few as four games to win the Nor Cal title.

“It’s really not about only winning on Sunday,” Dave Levinson said. “You really have to be in the driver’s seat in the winners’ bracket.”

Sunday’s win was far from being exclusively a Nolan Levinson show, though. The right-hander was charged with one unearned run on one hit and one walk, while striking out five. Turner entered in the third inning and fired 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, allowing one hit, one walk and one hit batsman, while striking out six. Armstrong closed it out by setting down the side in order in the sixth, striking out two.

Turner wriggled out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fifth. With Alpine leading 7-1, Petaluma’s Brayden Fong led off with a single, Brennan Pelkey drew a one-out walk and Jake Floraday got hit by a pitch to load them up. Turner ran the count to 3-2 to the following batter before recording a clutch swinging strikeout. The inning ended on a groundout to shortstop Garrett Weiss, who ranged to his backhand and threw to third for the force to retire the side.

“Obviously, the highest alert,” Dave Levinson said of the fifth-inning jam. “We didn’t even really feel comfortable until after Nolan’s grand slam (in the sixth).”

Dave Levinson said Turner’s stop job was critical in that he not only kept runs off the scoreboard, but it also held the hometown crowd at bay.

“It was an intense atmosphere,” Dave Levinson said. “So, the momentum factor is so huge there. And if they get a hit there, they’re going to go nuts.

“Their whole town showed up and was ready to go,” he said.

Alpine got plenty of thump up and down the order. Kogan Flannery totaled two doubles, and cashed in on Nolan Levinson’s leadoff single in the first with an RBI double to left to get Alpine on the board. Patrick Breslin later scored on a passed ball, and cleanup batter Charles Saste doubled home Flannery. Saste then scored when Turner reached on an error to make it 4-0.

In the third, Breslin worked a leadoff walk and Flannery doubled to left. Saste and Bodhi Bedner then produced back-to-back RBI groundouts to up the lead to 6-0.

Petaluma got on the board in the bottom of the third. Ethan Wallace led off with a double to right, and later scored on an infield error. But Alpine got the run right back in the fourth when No. 8 hitter Dylan Dossola led off the inning with a solo home run to center field, his first of the summer.

“When he’s locked in he absolutely has that kind of power,” Dave Levinson said. “But that said, he’s our No. 8 hitter, he’s not the biggest kid. So, when he hit it, it was awesome.”

Dossola only recently moved to the 8-spot to give Alpine a more top-heavy lineup. He hit leadoff through the District 52 tournament, batting .417 (5 for 12) through four games, but moved down in the order midway through the Section 3 tournament to move Nolan Levinson to the leadoff spot in order to get the team’s most powerful bat as many plate appearances as possible.

“It’s just a testament to the lineup depth that someone like that falls to 8,” Dave Levinson said. “But we always knew he could hit.”

Part of Alpine’s formula for getting max swings for Nolan Levinson is effectively turning over the batting order. And while the bottom of the order has cooled off since a red-hot performance in the Section 3 tournament, No. 10 batter Teddy Hourigan and No. 12 batter Jack Chambers got the job done with the bases loaded in the sixth, each drawing bases-loaded walks to bring Nolan Levinson to the plate with two outs and bases full.

Alpine’s slugging leadoff hitter made it count with a grand slam homer to center, his fourth round-tripper of the summer.

Heading into play Monday, six teams are still alive in the tournament. West Redding advanced Sunday with a 1-0 elimination win over Madera American. Monday’s elimination games feature Petaluma vs. Los Banos at 5 p.m., and West Redding vs. Aptos at 7:30 p.m.

The winner of Tuesday’s showdown between Alpine and Maidu will advance to the Nor Cal tournament championship round, starting Thursday at 6:30 p.m. An if-necessary game is tentatively scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m.