Sports
Little League 11-12 All-Stars: Dixon Drops Opener to Vacaville National 5-2
Four-run third inning for Vacaville sinks Dixon.
Dixon would like to have the fourth inning back of their first round game of the District 64 11-12 All-Stars tournament against Vacaville National.
Reliever Matt Butler, who came in relief of starter Jaret Wedow in the third inning, gave up a two-run homer that put Vacaville out in front in the fourth and allowed another pair of runs that put the game out of reach, as Dixon All Stars fell 5-2 Thursday night at Vacaville’s Keating Park.
“That’s a good hitting team we face tonight,” Dixon manager Andy Butler said. “We stayed in it for the most part.”
Find out what's happening in Dixonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Butler led off the game for Dixon with a solo home run to deep left-center field that put his team up 1-0. Jay Opperman would later double to deep right field, but was stranded at second when Nick Bello’s blast to deep center was caught on the warning track by Vacaville’s Siah Keola for the third out of the inning.
Dixon padded their lead in the bottom of the second. Spencer Webb reached with a two-out single and later scored on Butler’s deep drive to left field that gave Dixon a small 2-0 cushion.
Find out what's happening in Dixonfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Vacaville’s Noah Moore single-handedly cut Dixon’s lead in half in the third, crushing a solo home run to deep center field to make a 2-1 game. At that point, Wedow was pulled to keep his pitch count at the point where he would only need one day’s rest, and be ready to pitch in Saturday’s second round game.
“We want to bring back Jaret back on Saturday regardless of whether we won or loss tonight,” Butler said.
To that point, Wedow had recorded 32 pitches.
“Instead of letting him go to one more batter, we went ahead and we brought in Matt at that time to go ahead and get through that last little bit,” Butler said.
According to the Little League Website, pitchers that throw 20 pitches need no rest, 35 one day’s rest, 50 two day’s rest, 65 three day’s rest and more than 66 four day’s rest.
Dixon left seven runners on base, something that Butler said won’t win ball games.
“The two runs we scored is not going to produce a win for us, he said. “We got to get the bats going and we got to hit a little better and I think if we did that a little better, we’re able to go ahead and come away with a win tonight. I think that was the difference tonight.”
Butler expects the offense to turnaround for their first game in the elimination bracket.
“This team is very capable of doing that,” he said. “They’re a solid team all the way through and I know every single one of them can hit. I’m looking for that to happen Saturday.”
Dixon plays Saturday at Keating Field B at 1 p.m.
Like Peter Fournier on Facebook