Hungry like the Wolf: Keegan Wolf’s CG gem sends Alpine 11s to Section 3 title round

The latest in a series of highlight-reel good things game in Monday evening’s 8-1 win in the Section 3 Little League All-Stars 11s baseball tournament over last year’s Northern California regional 10s champion Castro Valley. Wolf was the headliner, delivering his second complete game of he All-Stars summer season, navigating nine Castro Valley hits by issuing no walks and stranding nine runners in the contest.

“There are few things I like more than watching Keegan Wolf pitch in a Little League game,” Alpine manager Tim Katz said. “He’s been our ace for two years. We’ve rode him and he’s just been awesome and fantastic. And what a job he did today, like he always does. So, it was fun to watch him pitch.”

Alpine’s right-handed ace couldn’t have done it without a fine showing from his defense, with run-saving plays all over the diamond. Charlie Katz turned in many defensive gems by fielding ground balls in tough spots, but his biggest moment came in the bottom of the fifth inning with two on and two outs.

Castro Valley’s Jaden Gutterres sent a fading looper toward the line in shallow left field, so far onto the grass Charlie Katz expected to hear the left fielder call him off as he sprinted after it.

“I actually thought whoever was playing left field was going to call me off,” Charlie Katz said. “But I didn’t hear them. And my dad is always like: ‘Go get that ball!’ And, I just ran, and I just go for it until someone calls me off — and no one called me off.”

Alpine’s shortstop was the only one near it, and made the clutch grab of the night with a running stab to get his team back into the dugout.

“I thought it was trouble,” Tim Katz said. “But we’ve been telling the boys, one of the mantras has been: ‘Go get that baseball!’ We’ve been shouting that a lot. ... Be aggressive, go get it and make a play. And Charlie did it for us there.”

It was the last in a long line of defensive gems that would have had Mel Allen saying “How about that?”

Alpine grinding out a 2-0 lead in the first by virtue of a two-out rally. Easton Morrison started things with a two-out double. Tommy Masters followed with an RBI single to left, and later scored on an RBI single from Hudson Rich. But Castro Valley cut the lead in half in the third with an RBI double from Gutterres.

Alpine kept the lead in check on the following play, however, when Emilio Centeno hit a chopper to third baseman Andrew Sutkin, who fired home to cut down a run for the second out of the inning. Then Cam Gilmore hit a tough chopper over the middle, with Charlie Katz charging hard and firing across the diamond for the third out of the inning.

The defensive brilliance continued into the fourth. Axle Garcia led off the inning for Castro Valley with an infield single, then moved to second on a wild pitch. John Lopes followed with a hot smash toward the gap in right-center, but Alpine center fielder Lolo McNeil got a quick first step and tracked down the liner with a long running catch.

“That was amazing,” Wolf said. “He went after the ball, and that was a great play. I had no doubt after it was off the bat that he was going to catch it.”

Gio Perry followed with a bunt single to put runners at the corners with one out, but when Berry Rinaldi followed with a high one-hop smash toward third base, Sutkin made a high, leaping grab to bring the ball down, check the runner at third, and throw to first for the second out of the inning.

“I thought that was going over his head, but he really jumped and he made a nice play,” Wolf said.

Prior to Charlie Katz’s running grab to end the fifth, the left side of the drawn-in infield made two plays to keep the tying run at third. The first was a sharp grounder to Charlie Katz, who picked it clean, looked the runner back, and made a calm throw to first for the first out of the inning. Then a chopper up the third-base line saw Sutkin pivot two steps onto the grass, keep the runner at third, and throw across the diamond for the second out.

“We were able to make both those plays with the ground balls in the infield with the infield in,” Tim Katz said. “Holding the runners and keeping them for scoring there was really kind of the key moment in the game, I thought.”

Stranding the potential tying and winning runs in scoring position was a tough pill to swallow for Castro Valley.

“It’s a real momentum killer for them,” Charlie Katz said. “They have to go into the field down by one run, top of the last inning, and they’re just bummed out. And we took it to them. We had all the momentum and we poured on all the runs.”

Then the floodgates opened, as Alpine sent 11 batters to the plate in the top of the sixth to push six runs across. With the bases loaded, Morrison got the line moving with a sacrifice fly to center. Then Masters belted an RBI double to right. Masters then scored on a passed ball, Hudson Rich doubled to right, and Wilson Shank followed with a squeeze bunt for an RBI single. Rich later scored when Graham Russell reached on an infield error.

Wolf’s ability to finish the game — using 85 pitches, 57 for strikes, and saving his only 1-2-3 inning of the game for the bottom of the sixth — means he is the only pitcher who is unavailable to Alpine when the championship round opens Tuesday night against San Ramon Valley.

“We’re good,” Tim Katz said. “[Wolf] is the only one burned. We’ve got everyone else available for the next two days, and we’re feeling good about where we’re at. ... Now, we have all the flexibility in the world. So, him being able to shut the door at the end there against their 1-2-3 was awesome, and made a big difference for us.”

Alpine must defeat San Ramon Valley twice in order to win the Section 3 championship, whereas San Ramon Valley, advancing through the winners’ bracket, need win just once. Tuesday’s championship game at Ford Field is slated for 5:30 p.m. An if-necessary game is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

“I’m feeling good,” Wolf said. “I think we’ve got some good pitchers going into the game. I think we can beat this team. The first game we played them, it was close. We could have had them; it was in the morning, it was early. But I think we can definitely beat them.”

In other action ...

The two other remaining District 52 teams were both eliminated from Section 3 play Monday night. Pacifica’s ran end in the Section 3 12s tournament with a 2-0 loss to Niles-Centerville at Five Canyons Park in Castro Valley. In the Section 3 10s tournament, San Mateo American was eliminated with a 1-0 loss to Fremont-Centerville at Marshall Park in Fremont.