Alpine stays alive in District 52 Little League All-Stars 12s baseball tournament

It’s the second time the two teams have met in the tourney, after Pacifica knocked Alpine into the elimination bracket with a 5-4 win Monday night. Now, the two teams are even in heads-up play with one win apiece, with Thursday’s if-necessary game serving as the critical tiebreaker to settle the District 52 title.

Alpine totaled 12 hits in the contest, while every hitter in the 12-man universal batting order reaching base.

“It was great,” Alpine manager John Brock said. “We have been hitting ball really well all tournament, and that has been the backbone of the team. And it’s great when you’re doing that, and it takes a lot of pressure off the pitchers. They don’t feel like they need to win the game, or if we give up runs we can get it back. And today we were just relentless top to bottom.”

The game hung in the balance through the first three innings, as Pacifica rallied back from five runs down with a 4-spot in the bottom of the third, with the help of two key Pacifica errors, to close it to 6-5. But Alpine answered back with five runs in the top of the fourth.

“I think we felt like we kicked the ball around quite a bit that inning, and we gave it to them,” John Brock said. “We gave them a few runs to take away our cushion. But we talk about it, that’s what baseball is, especially Little League baseball. Everybody makes mistakes, and it’s not so much about whether or not you make mistakes — you’re going to make the mistakes, and you’re going to make the errors. It’s about what we do after.”

The bottom of the Alpine order set the table in the fourth. Jacob Mallari was 2 for 3 in the contest, and sparked the rally with a sharp double just over the third-base bag. Charles Schmidt followed with a walk, and No. 12 batter Greyson Davis kept the pressure on with a pearl of a sacrifice bunt to move up both baserunners.

“I think just putting the ball in play with two strikes, and just having good at-bats is probably going to win us the game,” Davis said. “As long as we do that again, I think we have a good shot of winning tomorrow.”

Leadoff batter Nixon Strick delivered an RBI single, his second hit of the night.

“I’m mostly not used to (being) a leadoff hitter,” Strick said. “I’m usually like a 3-hitter. I’m new for a leadoff hitter. So, it’s fun.”

Jack Schneider was 2 for 2 with a walk and three RBIs in the game, and followed with a two-run single. After a Ryan Cohen single, Cleanup man Sam Kroll capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to right.

Pacifica, though, has a propensity for comebacks. Monday’s win saw manager Louie Potencion’s team trail 2-0 early, only to rally back to win it.

“They always find ways to score runs back,” Louie Potencion said. “When they don’t, it’s a little bit surprising. But, again, that’s a testament to Alpine’s pitching.”

But it was the arm Strick in right field that put the stamp on a shutdown inning in the bottom of the fourth. Jackson Painter smacked a line drive to right on what would have been a single, but it was struck so hard, and Strick got such a good read to charge it and come up throwing, he was able to gun to first base to get the out with a bang-bang cal for the first out of the inning.

“I saw it go through past our second baseman,” Strick said. “And then I was just like: ‘I think that’s a makable play for me.’ Because I know I’ve got an arm, so I can throw it there.”

Alpine already led by a bunch in the early going. In the first, after loaded the bases with one out, and Pacifica had a chance to escape the jam on a sharp one-hopper to the drawn-in MJ Spears Jr. at first. Spears threw home to get the force out but, with a potential double play on the table, Pacifica didn’t throw to first base, keeping the inning alive for Alpine’s Tommy Brock.

Extending the inning proved key in more ways than one. Not only did Tommy Brock get hit with a 1-2 pitch to force home courtesy runner Schneider with the first run of the game. It also saw Pacifica go to its bullpen in the middle of the inning, turning to left-hander Chase Tevis, to keep starting pitcher Miles Tucker’s soft pitch count under 20, keeping him available for Thursday for a potential if-necessary game.

But Tevis got out of the jam with one pitch, inducing a grounder to the sure-handed Mason Agbulos at short to retire the side.

Then Pacifica answered right back in the bottom of the frame, using a leadoff single by Agbulos and walks to Tucker and Spears to load the bases. Then, with two outs, Hunter Potencion reached on an infield error to score Agbulos to tie it 1-all.

But Alpine went large in the second, sending 10 batters to the plate amid a five-run outburst. After Gavin Arditi, Mallari and Davis singled to load the bases, Strick followed with an RBI single. Scheider followed with a walk to force home a run. Then Cohen dropped the hammer, as the left-handed hitting catcher roped a bases-clearing double up the left-center gap.

“He’s probably our best hitter,” Davis said. “And he’s just always really super reliable, and always just puts the bat on the ball.”

Schmidt capped the scoring for Alpine in the sixth with the game’s only home run, a solo shot to center field in the sixth.

Tucker started his fourth straight game of the tournament for Pacifica. After working just two-thirds of an inning, the right-hander will be available to pitch Thursday night at well. Pacifica used four pitchers in the game, with Tevis, Aiden Fitzpatrick and Spears all unavailable to pitch Thursday.

“I guess that’s the beauty about having an extra game,” Louie Potencion said. “You can kind of toy. Obviously, we wanted to win. And it started looking good when we started getting back there. But, hey, Alpine made their pitches, and we just couldn’t quite barrel up on them.”

Tommy Brock entered in relief of Kroll in the third inning for Alpine, and fired 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing two hits and a walk, while striking out three.

Thursday’s winner-take-all if-necessary championship game at Middlefield Ballpark is scheduled for a 6 p.m. first pitch.