Dixon All-Stars Topple Woodland in First Game of Tournament

The Dixon Little League All-Star team played their first game against the Woodland All-Stars at Hall Memorial Park in Dixon Saturday, winning an exciting back-and-forth battle that was competitive down to the final out.

“I didn’t know too much about Woodland, but I knew we were coming into this game as the underdogs, and we just needed to hit the ball and play strong defense, which we did,” said Dixon head coach Travis Roupp. “We went through our pitchers, and our pitchers kept the ball down. If we made an error, our kids kept their head up and they made the next play.”

Dixon burst out of the gate in this game when leadoff hitter Ray Welpott tripled to start things off. The next batter, Matthew Martinez, knocked him in with a single over the second baseman’s head, and Dixon was on the board. They would pick up another run off a single by Jayden Harris, and end the inning up 2-0.

Woodland struck back in the second, picking up a run on an infielder’s choice.

Jerick Maghoney widened the lead for Dixon in the top of the third when he hit a hard ground ball that the shortstop couldn’t handle with two outs and two strikes, making it 3-1.

Again, Woodland answered, scoring a run in the bottom of the third off an RBI single.

In the top of the fourth Dixon had their big inning, starting with Martinez knocking in a run, then scoring himself to make it 4-2. Mikey Nutting would score on an infielder’s choice, and Harris and Maghoney both knocked in a run to put Dixon up 7-2 before Woodland could put a stop to the rally.

Woodland was down, but not out. They managed to load the bases in the bottom of the fourth with no outs, and picked up two quick runs from a walk and a fielder’s choice, making it 7-4 with one out.

The next two hitters for Woodland singled to score runs, and then their first baseman doubled off the wall to score a run, and all of a sudden the game was tied 7-7. With runners on first and third and only one out, left-fielder Mikey Nutting took the mound, and struck out the next two batters to end the inning.

“I told Mikey before today that he was my closer. If we needed him, he was going to have to come in and shut the game down, and he did exactly that,” said Roupp.

In the top of the fifth, Nutting hit a single that scored two runs, putting Dixon up 9-7.

Woodland would pick up one more run in the bottom of the sixth, and get runners on first and third with two outs, but Nutting got the next batter to ground to short for the final out of the game, and Dixon squeaked out the 9-8 victory.

"We never got down on ourselves, and we showed big heart," said Roupp. "All the kids have big hearts and they all want to play hard and not let their friends down."

Dixon faces the Vacaville Central All-Stars tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. at Hall Memorial Park.