Little League All Stars: San Ramon Juniors Eliminated From Section 3 Tournament in Two-Day Game

The San Ramon Little League Juniors All Star team played eight and a half hours of baseball in the past three days.

So it's safe to say fatigue finally caught up with the group of 14-year-olds.

San Ramon and Niles-Centerville Little League of Fremont battled Monday afternoon for seven hard-fought innings before the game was postponed due to darkness. The teams were tied at eight.

San Ramon's sore arms and tired minds caught up to them on Tuesday as Niles-Centerville pounded out ten runs to take the Section 3 losers' bracket game 18-8. With the loss, San Ramon was eliminated from the tournament and its season ended.

"There was definitely some fatigue on this team today," assistant coach Tom Halpin said. "We just didn't seem to have it today."

The second batter of the restarted game, Niles-Centerville's Andrew Yamos launched a two-run home run to give Niles-Centerville a 10-8 lead. It then proceeded to pound out eight more runs on seven hits to take an 18-8 lead.

San Ramon went down in order in the bottom half of the eighth to end its tournament run and season.

Despite the loss, Halpin was incredibly proud of this team and what it's done this season.

"I absolutely love this team," he said. "I've been with some of these guys since they were seven and it's been awesome. We've made some great runs these past two seasons and I've loved every minute of it."

Even though some of this year's squad is already in high school, Halpin fully expects this team to be back next year for seniors.

"We've had this team together for the past six years, so I don't see anything keeping it from playing more in the future," Halpin said.

Because this team has been together for so long, the team chemistry has been key to its successes.

"Everyone on this team likes each other," Halpin said. "They're friends of f the field and really get along. This was a great team."

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Commentary, Jason Alpert

This San Ramon team was truly tremendous is every sense of the game. Whether its Camden Reynolds' brick-wall catching and outstanding hitting, or Alex Ross' pin point precision on the mound, everyone on this San Ramon team contributed in one way or another. Not even Albert Pujols could sneak a ground ball past Grant Halpin. Jake Everhart was a vacuum out in the outfield, running down fly balls that seemed to be well over his head off the bat. This was a complete, well rounded team.

But what made this team truly spectacular were its fans. Whether it was 20-6 San Ramon or 18-8 the other guys, the people on the bleachers were cheering as it was a one run game. The guys on the field were truly lucky to have the fan support they got.

A team can have great pitching, great hitting and great fielding, but unless its having fun, it can't truly be considered a great team. The 2010 San Ramon Little League juniors team was truly a great squad.