Little League All-Stars: Walnut Creek 12s Lose Close Game to Albany

The Walnut Creek 12-year-old all star team fell to Albany 5-3 in a game Walnut Creek coach Jeremy Briss said they could have won.

"We definitely played good enough to win this one," Briss said. "We just made one more mistake than them and that hurt us."

Albany struck first in the top of the first when leadoff hitter Liam Knowles reached on an error and scored on a Jordan Williams RBI single.

Walnut Creek countered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first. Brian Wright and Jack Logan both scored on an Albany error to take the early lead.

Albany regained the lead in the top of the second behind an Andrew Whittmore double and a Liam Knowles sacrifice fly.

Walnut Creek tied the score on a Seth Bloom RBI single. After three innings, the game was tied at three.

Albany took the lead for good when Billy Treseler scored on a Liam Knowles RBI single. Albany added an insurance run in the sixth on a Williams RBI single.

Despite the loss, Briss still feels this team can do well down the road.

"This was our first game, so we had some cob webs to shake off," Briss said. "We learned from what we did and I think we'll do a lot better in our next game."

With the loss, Walnut Creek will drop down to the losers' bracket of the tournament. Walnut Creek will now have to win its next seven games in order to win the tournament. To do so, a team will have to be deep on pitching and Briss feels this Walnut Creek team could do it.

"We're deep on pitching as long as we manage them right," Briss said. "As long as we throw strikes and keep our pitch counts low, I don't see why we can't go deep in this tournament."

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Albany 5, Walnut Creek 3

Albany 120 101 — 5 10 1  

Walnut Creek 210 000 — 3 9 2 

Albany — Knowles 2-3-2, Tonkeyn 0-4-0, Williams 3-4-0, Bass 0-3-0, Layton 0-2-0, Katz-Balmes 0-1-0, James 0-1-0, Pollack 2-2-0, Camps 1-2-1, Treseler 0-1-1, Greco 0-1-0, Warren 0-1-0, Whittemore 1-2-1, Holmes 1-1-0 

Walnut Creek — Blome 3-4-0, Wright 1-4-1, Dorflinger 0-4-0, Logan 1-3-1, Davison 2-3-0, Kulsuptrakul 0-2-0, Katzepf 0-1-0, Barker 1-2-0, McDonald 0-1-0, Watchmaker 1-2-1, Cochrane 0-1-0, Cesario 0-1-0, Kane 0-2-0

Pitching

Albany — James 2 IP, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 4 K, 1 BB; Pollack 4 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 6 H, 6 K, 1 BB

Walnut Creek — Davison 4 1/3 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 7 H, 5 K, 1 BB, 1 HP; Logan 1 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 0 K, 0 BB; Wright 1/3 IP, o R, o ER, 1 H, 0 K, 0 BB

Hitting

2B — Knowles (Albany), Davison (Walnut Creek)