Little League All Stars: San Ramon 10s Top Dublin Behind Stellar Starting Pitching

The Star: San Ramon needed pitcher Sam York to give it a good game — he turned in a great one. York was stellar from the start, as he went the distance, allowing only two runs on nine hits in six innings.  

The Turning Point: In the bottom of the third, Dublin, which was down 2-1, loaded the bases with one out. York then forced the next two batters to ground into fielder's choices to end the inning. Dublin threatened San Ramon and York once again in the bottom of the sixth, this time down 5-1. After plating a run, Dublin had the bases loaded with none out. York forced another fielder's choice and then got an unassisted double play from second baseman Nick McCambridge to end the game.

The Quote: "I feel really good about that one," San Ramon coach Jeff Santos said. "This team was in the same situation last year so it feels good to win again. It was a 'what if' game for us, and we beat them to force the game tomorrow. It feels great."

What's next? It will all come down to Thursday. With the win, San Ramon forced a winner-take-all game Thursday against Dublin to determine the District 57 10-year-old All Star championship. The familiar foes will meet tomorrow, July 8, at Robert Livermore Park in Livermore, Calif. at 5:30 pm.

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On Monday, it was the Dublin Little League 10-year-old All Stars topping San Ramon in a close game. Wednesday, however, belonged to San Ramon.

San Ramon topped Dublin to force a winner-take-all game between the two teams to determine the District 57 champions.

"This team's experience in close games definitely helped today," San Ramon coach Jeff Santos said.

The game started off right for San Ramon as it scored two runs on a Nick McCambridge double.

Dublin scored one in the bottom of the third on a Jack Nielsen RBI single to plate Ryne Zapotoczny.

San Ramon got the run back in the top of the fourth on a Robby Funkhouser RBI double. San Ramon later went on to add two insurance runs in the sixth to secure the victory.

The real MVP of the game, however, was starting pitcher Sam York. York established himself as dominant, shutting down Dublin in the top of the first in order. 

"Sam pitched unbelievable," Santos said. "We were planning on throwing him until the wheels fell off and that's exactly what he did. He gave us everything we wanted and more."

Santos feels confident about his team's chances Thursday, but feels San Ramon will have to improve on a couple of aspects of its game.

"We got to score more runners that get on base," he said. "We have to score runs early and throw strikes."

Santos feels to score more runs, the San Ramon hitters will have to make better decisions at the plate and pick better pitches to swing at.

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San Ramon LL 5, Dublin LL 2

SanRamon 200102 — 5 6 1  

Dublin 001001 — 2 9 1 

San Ramon — Chalmers 2-4-0, Santos 0-3-0, York 0-2-1, Powers 1-3-1, McCambridge 1-1-0, Jew 0-2-0, Funkhouser 1-1-0, Giusto 0-2-1, Lam 1-1-1, Cole 0-3-0

Dublin — Lenhardt 0-1-0, Johnston 0-2-0, Nielsen 1-2-0, Curran 1-3-0, Rivera 1-3-0, Brennan 1-3-1, Greim 1-3-0, Brock 0-1-0, Chin 1-2-0, Zapotoczny 2-3-1, Horton 1-2-0, Wisch 0-1-0