Petaluma Valley All-Stars swing on
Little Leagurs win section tournament, advance to division play
Published: Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
By GEORGE HAIRE
Petaluma Valley forged another big step in Major Little League All-Star play by holding off Alameda, 4-3, to capture the Section 1 Tournament title in Woodland Monday night.
The victory assures the stars from Petaluma entry into the Division 2 Tournament hosted by Alameda that was scheduled to begin Wednesday evening.
Petaluma Valley will open with the winner of the game between Section 3 and Section 2 champions July 24 at 5:30 p.m. A win would put the Petalumans into a winners’ bracket game at 10 a.m. on July 26. A loss and the Valley would play July 25 at 5:30.
All games are being played on two diamonds at Will. C. Wood School, 420 Grand Ave. in Alameda.
Josh Adams came off the bench to open the bottom of the fourth inning by lofting a home run over the left field fence for the margin of victory in the Section 1 championship game. Alameda had tied the contest at 3-3 in the top of the frame on a two-out single by Robert Kinney.
The lead shifted following a two-run second inning by Alameda. Valley came back in the bottom of the inning to plate three runs. Following singles by Justin Toavs and Joe Henry, second baseman Jack Micco bounced a fielder’s choice groundball out for an RBI, narrowing the margin to 2-1. Taylor Gomez continued to hit in the clutch for Petaluma by smashing a two-run blast, and Valley went ahead until the fourth.
Valley manager Chris Micco and coach Rick Duarte gave the ball to pitcher Mitchell Wilhelmsen in the most important elimination game of the season and the right-hander didn’t disappoint. Wilhemsen had fine control and went the distance with eight strikeouts. He walked only two and hit one batter in six strong innings. All three runs for Alameda were scored with two out when Valley almost escaped danger.
Petaluma shortstop Clay Hardy was a steady force at his position with four key assists on hard-hit ground balls up the middle.
Gomez had two hits and a couple of RBIs for Petaluma. Christian DeYoung paced the six-hit Alameda offense with two singles.
Alameda pitcher Drew Huie shut down the Valley bats to help his team stave off elimination with a 3-0 win Sunday evening that made the Monday game necessary. Huie, a smooth-working left-hander, combined an effective fast ball with several off-speed breaking pitches to limit Petaluma to only three hits.
Petaluma gave up single runs in the first three innings and failed to capitalize on the few scoring opportunities that it mustered.
Valley had one promising chance to rally back from a three-run deficit in the fourth inning following a walk to Francis Christy and the second of two singles off the bat of Wilhelmsen. Both runners advanced on a fielder’s choice, but Huie stiffened with a pair of consecutive strikeouts.
Toavs took the mound in the fourth inning for Petaluma and breezed through three impressive innings without allowing a base runner. Toavs struck out five, but Alameda held on to force a showdown game.
Little League baseball at its finest was on display when Petaluma handed host Woodland a white-knuckle 5-4 defeat in a second-round, extra-inning contest. Valley jumped to a four-run lead after three brisk innings, led by a two-run homer off the bat of late entry Dominic Garihan.
Woodland pleased a goodly gathering of home folks by finally reaching starter Wilhelmsen for a pair of runs in the fifth inning. Reliever Hardy came in to attempt to close the door in the final inning, but Woodland scored two more runs and threatened for more until Jake Murphy came in to retire the side. Hardy would come back later to have the final word.
Murphy labored in the seventh inning by loading the bases, but struck out Walker Perry to eliminate the threat. Perry had knocked in two runs to tie the game.
The reliable Gomez opened the deciding seventh inning with a clutch double. He was bunted to third base on a well-executed sacrifice by Tyler Nadolski. Hardy then ended proceedings by bounding a single into right field for the game winner.
The well-played game was a crowd pleaser from the opening frame and played flawlessly by both clubs.
Valley was pushed to the limit by Alameda in the Thursday tournament opener, but scored the winning run on a wild pitch to escape with a 6-5 victory.
Petaluma led most of the game after breaking out to a 3-0 first-inning lead, but the District 4 winners caught them with a two-out, two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth.
Alameda went into the game as one of the pre-tournament favorites and held a win over District 53 champion Valley of the Moon.
It was a night of firsts for Petaluma, as it got past its initial tight game of the tournament and managed to survive playing in its first night game of the season.
“The game was good experience for us,” said Micco. “Our kids had a little trouble with the lights at the beginning.
Nadolski lost a ball in the air, but he picked it up and made a great catch in center field.”
Nadolski had a solid all-around game for the winners by belting a two-run home run to give Petaluma a short-lived 5-3 lead prior to the bottom of the fifth inning.
“Tyler was the 10th player on our team to hit a home run since the tournaments began,” noted Micco.
Wilhelmsen continued his all-around steady work with a two-run four master in the first inning.
Later, he came in to pitch and earned the save with two critical strikeouts to close out the game.
Valley pitcher Christy exited after 85 pitches and a 5-3 lead. He was followed by Gomez and Wilhelmsen. Christy had not pitched since a win against Petaluma American in the District championship game two weeks earlier.
