Years ago I broke ranks with my oldest friends, who had long made a tradition of getting together annually to watch the MLB All-Star Game. It was work related, as I was new to writing about local sports and was assigned to cover the District 52 Little League All-Star Minors championship game at the Belmont Sports Complex.
While apologizing to my friends to tell them I couldn’t join them to watch the midsummer classic at a local pub, I promised I’d make it up to them the following year. I ended up breaking that promise as Little League All-Star baseball quickly changed my entire outlook on the sport. In short, the District 52 Little League All-Star tournaments are simply the best baseball around.
Karma served me this year when I received an invitation to cover the annual City Cup championship game between the 12-and-under champs of San Mateo’s two rival Little Leagues, San Mateo American and San Mateo National. The game, between the SM American champion White Sox and the SM National champion Astros, was held Wednesday, May 28, on Marten’s Field at Lakeshore Park. Unfortunately, I couldn’t cover the game, as I had a conflicting assignment to cover Serra vs. St. Francis in the Central Coast Section Division I varsity baseball semifinals in San Jose.
While the Serra-St. Francis showdown was one to witness — the Padres won it 7-4 en route to claiming their first CCS championship since 2009, a few years after I first ducked out on the MLB All-Star Game with my friends — it sounds like I missed a real good one at Marten’s Field, with the American White Sox rallying to win it 8-3 over the National Astros.
“But it was way closer than that,” White Sox manager Andrew Anderson said.
It was, indeed. Tied 3-all at the end of six regulation innings, the game went to extras, where the White Sox sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run inning. Jacob Armstrong had the clutch hit with an RBI double to drive home Jacob Provence with the go-ahead run. Jameson Stoloski followed with a two-run single, Makai Nakamoto added an RBI double, and Nakamoto later scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of Harrison Klima.
The big finish counted as a comeback victory, as Astros slugger Michael Bahamondes highlighted a wild top of the first with a booming solo home run to left. It was quite an opening frame, as White Sox starting pitcher Armstrong recorded four strikeouts in the inning, and went on to fan 11 through four innings of work.
“When they got that very first run on us I knew we had to be resilient and not panic,” Anderson said, “but I think the team, at the end of the year, had done a really good job with that.”
The Sox certainly made a habit of come-from-behind heroics. The City Cup championship marked their third straight comeback win. In the San Mateo American playoff semifinals against the A’s, they overcame two home runs by Alex Bayer, including a first-inning bomb, to win it 6-4. In the San Mateo American championship game, the Angels jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but Armstrong tied it in the bottom of the inning with a three-run blast and went on to fire a five-inning complete game in a 13-3 White Sox victory.
Reliever Stoloski closed out two of those games for the Sox, including three innings of work in the City Cup championship to earn the win. Stoloski coughed up the lead with the Astros scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth, but bounced back in the bottom of the seventh, pitching through a one-out error and a hit batsman to wrap up the title.
“It was a really tense back-and-forth and a really nice game by both teams,” Anderson said.
Are you excited about Little League baseball yet? No? No worries, we haven’t even gotten to the All-Stars yet.
***
Friday night saw the kickoff of All-Stars season with the annual Superbowl tournament. The Superbowl is comprised of two concurrent weeklong tournaments featuring the second tier of Little League All-Stars. The top tier players selected to represent their cities in the District 52 Little League All-Star tournaments, opening Saturday, June 21, are not eligible to play in the Superbowl.
With 11 teams in the Majors 12U tournament, and 14 teams in the Minors 10U tournament, the Superbowl features a new double-elimination format this season, allowing teams to be guaranteed two games. In previous years, the tournaments were single-elimination.
“I think it’s great,” San Mateo American board member Larry Weyer said. “It means two games for every team instead of the one-and-done. ... So, I’m looking forward to see how that works out.”
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Superbowl championship games are slated for Wednesday, with the Majors’ championship and consolation championship games being played at Sea Cloud Park in Foster City, and the Minors’ championship and consolation championship games at Arguello Park in San Carlos.
Still not excited? Good. You’re saving yourself for the main event.
***
There is nothing like the District 52 Little League All-Star tournaments. For those of you whose perception of Little League baseball is “The Bad News Bears,” get ready to be amazed. To put into perspective the depth of talent featured by District 52 Little League — spanning from San Mateo to Palo Alto — that San Mateo American White Sox team that won the City Cup championship doesn’t have any players on the San Mateo American Little League All-Stars 12s roster.
Granted, the White Sox were a young team. With six different District 52 All-Star tournaments — 10s, 11s, 12s (Majors), 13s (Intermediate), 14s (Juniors) and 16s (Seniors) — the White Sox will be represented by four players on the All-Star 11s squad: Stoloski, Armstrong, Drew Kettmann and Cullen Whiley. The Sox also have two players on the Majors Superbowl roster: Nakamoto and Vettius Cincotta.
The 12s tournament, however, is considered the elite tournament, with the District 52 bracket the first of four stages on the road to South Williamsport and the Little League World Series. It sounds like a short road, but it isn’t. No District 52 team has ever reached the LLWS, and the last time a district team reached the fourth stage, the West Regional Tournament in San Bernardino, was when Pacifica American advanced to the championship game in 2014 only to fall one win shy of advancing to South Williamsport.
Last summer, the “No-No Kids” of San Mateo American won the District 52 and Section 3 tournaments to reach the third stage, the Nor Cal Division II All-Star regional tournament, where they were eliminated during a sweltering July week in Madera. Like their 12U counterpart, the San Mateo American 11s also won the District 52 championship, and advanced to the Section 3 tournament finals before falling to section champion Grenada.
This year, San Mateo American manager Jon Wells returns 10 of the 12 players from his 11s squad as they promote to the 12s tournament, including a deep pitching staff, highlighted by Colton Baker, Owen Bittle, Mazin Khoury, Brayden Sole and Carter Wells. Other returning players include Bayer, Joaquin Lee, Zach Marinec, Jonathan Pettigrew and Robert Zapala, while newcomers Andrew Bandel and Elliott Klemp round out the roster.
“We have a good team, but there are four or five others that are just as capable,” Jon Wells said. “So, it’s going to be a highly competitive tournament.”
A few others to watch in the 11-team field are Alpine, managed by Dave Levinson; Hillsborough, managed by Chase Rowbotham; and San Mateo National, managed by Gary Falzone.
San Mateo American has got quite a core of players though, seven of whom play year-round with the West Coast Federals Baseball Club. Jon Wells manages three of his All-Star players with the Federals White squad: Bayer, Sole and Carter Wells. Two play for last year’s San Mateo American All-Star 12s manager Jason Gordon with Federal Blue, and two others play for Kevin Zouzounis with Federals Red.
“These guys, they end up playing year-round baseball with very little break ... so they’re just getting high-level reps,” Jon Wells said. “It’s a different style of baseball ... different size fields, different type of competition. But it just helps them to get better year-round as opposed to just picking it up when Little League starts.”
***
District 52 Little League All-Star games are free to the public. I’ll repeat: District 52 Little League All-Star games are free to the public.
Your assignment, since you’re still reading this, is to show up. The championship round of the 12s tournament at the mini-Sunken Diamond baseball nirvana of Middlefield Ballpark in Palo Alto, starts Tuesday, July 1, at 6 p.m.; the 10s championship round starts Monday, June 30 at San Mateo’s Trinta Park, at 5:30 p.m.; the 11s championship round starts Sunday, June 29 at Hillsborough’s District Field.
And prepare to be amazed.
Terry Bernal is a sports writer for the San Mateo Daily Journal. His views are his own. Contact by email at terry@smdailyjournal.com or via phone at (650) 344-5200 x109.
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