Banner night for Alpine: District 52 Little League Superbowl Majors championship caps title sweep

Thursday night, Alfaro helped continue the tradition of taking home banners, as his Alpine team claimed the District 52 Little League Superbowl Majors championship with a 13-3 win over Pacifica at the Belmont Sports Complex. With the win, Alpine swept both the 12-and-under Majors and 11-and-under Minors Superbowl titles, with the Minors knocking off San Carlos at Arguello Park by an identical score of 13-3.

Alfaro entered play Thursday with no homers in the summer tournament, but connected for one of Alpine’s three three-run home runs on the evening. His three-run blast to center field got Alpine on the board to take a 3-0 lead in the first. Rhys Adam then supplied two homers, a three-run shot in the third to make it 8-2, and another three-run homer in the sixth to make it 13-3.

“All the kids were just kind of relaxed at the plate,” Alpine manager Shea McIntyre said. “Everybody kind of taking their job that they’re going to do. ... Find a good pitch, find a barrel.”

Adam homered just once during the Alpine Little League regular season with his team Hengehold Trucks. He totaled three homers through five games in the Superbowl tournament.

“I just had to calm down more and also ... the pitching in Alpine is very fast,” Adam said.

Thursday’s matchup was a historic one of sorts for District 52, as it featured the last two cities to reach the West Region Little League All-Stars tournament. Previous to Alpine advancing to San Bernardino in 2025, the last District 52 team to reach the penultimate stage on the road to Williamsport was Pacifica American in 2014.

Pacifica has since merged its National and American leagues under one Pacifica umbrella, and is seeing results. In addition to reaching the Superbowl Majors finals, Pacifica captured the inaugural District 52 Superbowl 9-and-under championship earlier this summer.

“So, I was hoping to bring two in one year, but it didn’t work out,” Pacifica Majors manager Anthony Zoph said.

Pacifica — paced by Logan Zoph, who hit .833 with 10 hits and eight RBIs in the tournament, and pitcher Jack Lyons — rolled through the Superbowl tourney by virtue of four mercy-rule wins. Alpine turned the tables by going up by 10 runs in the top of the fifth.

“The kids battled,” Anthony Zoph said. “We 10-run ruled every team that we played against. ... This game came back and bit us. But, yeah, the kids played well.”

Alpine started the tourney on the wrong foot. With an overall 4-1 record, Alpine dropped its tournament opener 7-4 to San Carlos, before bouncing back with a 16-2 win over Menlo-Atherton to advance through pool play. Alpine then won a 3-2 thriller over Hillsborough in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, courtesy of a walk-off sacrifice fly from Ben Much, sending the team running out of the third-base dugout to mob Much in celebration.

“Huge reaction,” Shea McIntyre said. “Boys going crazy.”

Alpine then banged out 11 hits against San Mateo American for a 12-2 win in Wednesday’s semifinals.

“Heading into the tournament, we kind of just knew that we could play with anybody here,” Shea McIntyre said. “All the kids were very fired up and we just got it rolling.”

Alpine opened the championship game with an explosive four-run first. After Alfaro’s three-run blast, Adam added a sacrifice fly to score Sammy Karr to make it 4-0. Pacifica scored twice in the bottom of the inning with an RBI single from Logan Zoph and a steal of home by Jace Harrington on a double steal. But Alpine scored four more in the third, with an RBI single from Karr and Adam’s first three-run homer of the game.

Logan Zoph got one more run for Pacifica in the third on an RBI double. But Alpine exploded for five runs in the fifth to put it away, with RBIs from Alfaro and Much. Then Adam clubbed his second homer of the night, capping his summer before taking up other hobbies.

“Probably going to play video games and build Legos,” Adam said.

Alpine starting pitcher Elliot Altick pitched 1 2/3 innings. Luca McIntyre came on in relief to earn the win, closing it out with 3 1/3 innings of work.

Other players who contributed to Alpine’s 12-and-under Majors Superbowl championship were: Ethan Cole, Duke Cassel, Patricio Flores, Weston Sheehan, Logan Slaton and Andrew Gordlis.