Pacifica American claims District 52 Majors title

“He was very composed and hitting his spots,” Pacifica American manager Fran Dickinson said. “He was ready for the moment. … I remember him saying the other night, ‘I don’t want to lose another championship game.’”

San Mateo slugger Derek Waldvogel was the only batter to get to Azzopardi, drilling a game-tying solo home run in the second inning. Otherwise, the big right-hander dominated to the tune of 12 strikeouts through five frames before giving way in the sixth to left-hander Gino Venturi, who struck out three more, including a game-ending punch-out to seal the championship banner.

Azzopardi has now been to four straight District 52 championship games — the 9-10s in 2014; the 10-11s in ’15; and the Majors last year — having been eliminated in all three previous seasons. He actually earned a championship-round win at 10-11s two years ago but Pacifica, advancing through the elimination bracket in 2015, needed to win two games in the championship round and ultimately lost the second game.

This time around, with Pacifica advancing through the winners’ bracket, Azzopardi did everything in his power to stave off a second game. He got his team on the board in the bottom of the first inning with a solo home run against San Mateo starting pitcher Pat Mori. Then, after a hiccup in surrendering the solo shot to Waldvogel, he settled in and pitched his A-game.

“His fastball has been really good but his curveball was working a lot better today,” said Garett Carlson, Pacifica’s starting catcher who handled all three of Azzopardi’s pitching appearances in the tournament.

Carlson provided what proved to be the game-winning swing of the bat in the third, jumping on a shoulder-high fastball from Mori to send a towering shot over the left-field fence. The pitch was well out of the strike zone, but was right in the right-handed slugger’s wheelhouse.

“The high pitch, it’s my favorite,” Carlson said. “If it’s high, I’m swinging at it.”

The Carlson homer set off a celebration in the Pacifica dugout, but with three innings to go in a Little League game, Dickinson wasn’t expecting the slight one-run lead to hold.

“They exploded,” Dickinson said of his dugout’s reaction. “They erupted in cheers. … But I thought for sure we’d need a few more runs.”

That was not the case. Azzopardi went on to set down six of the last seven batters he faced before walking off the mound at the end of the fifth. He departed after reaching the maximum pitch count allowed in Majors Little League, having thrown 86 pitches on the day.

“It was a good battle — a good pitching battle,” San Mateo American manager Paul Witten said.

Mori departed after three innings, but also allowed just two hits in the game. He wriggled out of a second-inning jam nicely, loading the bases with no outs before inducing a 5-2-3 double play and a comebacker for the third out.

Mori and Azzopardi have more history as teammates than they do as opposing pitchers, having both played for the West Coast Federals tournament team out of San Mateo, which is managed by Witten.

“If we’re going to lose to anyone, we’re going to lose to those guys,” Witten said. “I’m very proud of the way we played.”

San Mateo threatened in the sixth though. The left-handed Venturi set down the first two batters in order, both on swinging third strikes, before Ned Righellis reached on a walk. Pinch-hitter Jake Lieberman followed with a sharp grounder to third that was knocked down, but the throw to first was offline to put runners at the corners with two outs.

Venturi muscled up though, recording his third strikeout of the inning to end it with a swing-and-miss heater.

“I think [Venturi] did really good,” Azzopardi said. “He really calmed down and threw strikes.”

Through five wins in the tournament, Pacifica outscored its opponents 36-7, claiming two one-run wins in the process, both against San Mateo American.

“When you get to this level, you’re going to run into a lot of one-run games,” Dickinson said. “We’ve had two of them and both of them were against San Mateo American. I can’t say enough about them.”

With the win, Pacifica American advanced to the Section 3 tournament, opening the four-team double-elimination tournament Saturday in Union City with Pacifica taking on the District 57 champion at Hall Ranch/Veterans Park at 10 a.m.

Hillsborough captures 10-11s banner

Thomas Egbert produced a go-ahead two-run single in the third inning and Hillsborough marched to a 4-1 victory over Menlo-Atherton in the District 52 Little League 10-11s All-Star Tournament championship game Tuesday morning at the Belmont Sports Complex.

Egbert also closed out the victory, firing three scoreless innings in relief to earn the save. Starting pitcher Dylan Kall battled through three innings to earn the win. M-A twice loaded the bases with less than two outs against Kall, but he worked through both jams, stranding seven runners through three frames, while recording all nine outs by way of strikeout.