Half Moon Bay rallies for D52 Juniors title

“They showed a lot of resliency,” said HMB manager Brian Jackson.

In the winner-take-all finale, HMB led 3-2 going into the top of the seventh before RCSC scored twice to take a 4-3 advantage. But HMB responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Ian Ehrhardt scored from third base on a wild pitch to walk off with the tournament championship.

“Really proud of the boys,” Jackson said. “They came right back with two runs (to win the game).”

The finale was the rubber-match game between HMB and RCSC. The two met in the second round, a RCSC 13-12 victory that sent HMB to the loser’s bracket.

The two met again in the first round of the championship series, with HMB posting a 9-0 win to set up final championship game.

It was sweet redemption for HMB because that tournament-opening loss could have been the death knell for HMB, considering how it lost. Half Moon Bay was up 10-0 on RCSC in that first game, but RCSC came roaring back to stun HMB, handing it a 13-12 loss.

Just like that, HMB was behind the 8-ball.

“It completely fell apart. … So many things went wrong,” Jackson said. “So many goofy things happened.”

But Jackson said he didn’t see the team get down on itself. The players simply looked forward to the next game.

“The next day, it was over with,” Jackson said. “We came back the next day and played well.”

Jackson said he knew offense wouldn’t be a problem for his team and he was right. In the six games of the tournament, HMB averaged more than 10 runs per game.

The pitching, however, took a couple games to find its groove. But after surviving an 11-10 win over Hillsborough in the first game of the loser’s bracket, the combination of Riley Jackson, Maverick Johnson and Clark Colucci locked down the opposition. Coach Jackson said that trio pitched complete games over the next three games and in the last game, Riley Jackson went 6 1/3 innings, striking out eight, and only came out because he reached his pitch count.

After giving up 24 runs in its first two games, HMB allowed only six more runs over the next four games.

“We tried to save our pitching (early on) for later in the tournament and that was a mistake,” Coach Jackson said. “The [final] four games, we were able to line up our pitching and it was go time.”

After getting past Hillsbough, HMB rolled into the championship series. It followed that 11-10 victory with a 17-0, mercy-rule shellacking of San Mateo American. It then beat Belmont-Redwood Shores 10-1 to move into the championship series and then cruised to a 9-0 win over RCSC in the first championship game to set up the winner-take-all finale.

Maverick Johnson, HMB’s No. 2 hitter, and No. 3 hitter Riley Jackson led the way offensively, both hitting better than .500 for the tournament. Riley Jackson drove in 10 runs for the tournament, while Johnson had a tournament-leading 13 runs scored.

But HMB did the bulk of its damage on the basepaths, where it stole 75 bases.

That is not a misprint. HMB averaged more than 10 stolen bases a game, including five in the championship-winning, seventh-inning rally. Coach Jackson said the Half Moon Bay Little League regular-season Juniors coaches were big proponents of strong base running and the players brought that mentality to the all-star tournament.

“We have some very athletic kids and they’re aggressive (on the basepaths),” Coach Jackson said. “They all knew thay had the green light to go. … I think we were only caught (stealing) four times.”

Three players — Riley Jackson, Dylan Modena and Ehrhardt — each had 13 stolen bases apiece.

With the District 52 championship secured, Half Moon Bay will move into the four-team, Section 3 tournament hosted by the East Bay’s District 57, beginning July 16 in Dublin.

Coach Jackson said he likes his team’s chances.

“If these kids play like they did (in the District 52 tournament), we’ll be just as good as anyone out there (in the Section 3 tournament),” Coach Jackson said.