Little League All Stars: Run Comes to an End For San Ramon 12s

It wasn't the end they were hoping for, but even after the San Ramon Little League 12-year-old All Stars were eliminated from the International Little League Tournament Tuesday it was hard to keep them down for long.

Not 10 minutes after the team fell to Tri-City of Rocklin 10-2 in a losers' bracket game at Centennial Park in Vacaville,  there were conversations of "wow, we had a good season" and shared memories from seasons past.

"I'm going to remember all the friendships and how fun it was," Joey Holden said. "We're all friends on the team and we worked really hard."

Though San Ramon scratched out just two hits and two runs against Tri-City, the team's hitting will be remembered for an abundance of power. 

In 11 games, the six players combined to hit 21 home runs:

Matt Ramirez — 7

Tommy Jew — 6

Rocky Moore — 3

Jake Ackerman — 2

Michael Pangelinan — 1

Ramirez had three multi-homer games, Jew homered in half the games he played in, Moore delivered a grand slam and Ackerman provided a walk-off to remember to beat River Park.

"Our league president pointed out there are almost 500 teams in Northern California and we got fourth," manager Dave Jew said. "That's pretty good."

The group, which didn't win a District 57 title at any other age, became the second San Ramon team in history to advance to the NorCal Divisional following last year's team which finished second. 

The season started with a dominating performance of crosstown rival Canyon Creek before getting over the hump with a 6-3 win against defending NorCal champion Danville.

In the winners' bracket final of the District 57 tournament, San Ramon topped Pleasanton American 11-0 before beating Danville 8-6 in the title game.

At the Section 3 tournament, San Ramon squeaked by a J.T. Snow-coached Hillsborough team before mercy-ruling San Lorenzo National 13-0 and Tracy American 14-4.

Another win against Tracy earned San Ramon the Section crown.

With a trip to San Bernardino on the line in the Divisional tournament, things started to sputter for San Ramon. The team opened the tournament with a loss to Hollister, but turned in possibly the most memorable game of the year a day later when Ackerman ended River Park's season with his walk-off homer just before midnight.

Without Rocha, Ackerman or Jew available to pitch on Tuesday against Tri-City, San Ramon was low on options. Justin Catson, Grant Mendoza and Nick Gilfillan all filled in admirably, but Tri-City got hot early and San Ramon couldn't keep pace.

Tiegen Bagnall delivered a spark with a drive to the wall in center in the 2-run fourth, but it was the last hit the team would get.

"This was a great group of kids, they all got along were great to coach over the past four year," Dave Jew said. "Every player has a moment they'll remember."

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Tri-City 10, San Ramon 2

Tri-City 423 110 — 10 14 2
San Ramon 000 200 — 2 2 1

San Ramon (ab-r-h) — Pangelinan 1-0-0, Ramirez 3-0-0, Rocha 2-0-0, Ackerman 3-0-0, Moore 3-0-0, Gerlach 1-0-0, Mendoza 2-1-1, Catson 3-1-0, Gilfillan 0-0-0, Bagnall 2-0-1, Holden 1-0-0.

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Commentary

I just wanted to pass along a personal note of congratulations to the team. It was a lot of fun covering this team and I can speak for Steve Waterhouse, Jason Alpert and Peter Fournier when I say this team was really a special group.

- Kyle Bonagura, East Bay Regional Sports Editor