Little League All Stars: San Ramon Junior 90s Fall in Extras to Half Moon Bay

The Star: San Ramon's Camden Reynolds was stellar in the loss. Along with catching all eight innings, Reynolds went 2 for 3 at the plate. He had an RBI triple in the second to tie the score at 3-3 and a long single off the fence in right center in the fifth. He also gunned down two prospective base-stealers to cap off his performance.

The Turning Point: San Ramon was three outs away from taking the game when Half Moon Bay's Neil Sterling stepped to the plate. Sterling hit a first pitch home run to deep center field to tie the score at 4-4 and force extra frames. Half Moon Bay proceeded to win in the eighth inning.

The Quote: "This was a tough game to swallow and Half Moon Bay is a good team," coach Bill Ross said. "I'm proud of our team for going toe-to-toe with these guys."

What's next? San Ramon will have to power through the losers' bracket to keep its hopes alive. It will have to win its next five games in order to take the Section 3 title. San Ramon will start its trek through the losers' bracket tomorrow at 2 p.m. where it will meet the Tracy American LL at Gomes Elementary in Fremont.

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In a game which saw San Ramon come back from a three-run deficit, it was Half Moon Bay who got the last laugh.

Half Moon Bay Little League scored in the top of the eighth to top San Ramon Little League 5-4 in extra frames of the Section 3 Juniors Tournament. Half Moon Bay will continue through the winners' bracket and face Niles-Centerville, while San Ramon will drop to the losers' bracket to face Tracy American Sunday afternoon.

"Despite the loss, I'm proud of how we played," Ross said. "We came back and we pitched extremely well."

The contest started off sour for San Ramon as Half Moon Bay scored three in the top of the first.

San Ramon, aided by a balk and a couple wild pitches, added two runs in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to one.

After a scoreless second, San Ramon took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the third behind a Camden Reynolds triple and a single from Dean Heinz.

With the lead, San Ramon relief pitcher Alex Ross shut down the potent Half Moon Bay offense, holding it scoreless for four-plus innings. Ross didn't allow a Half Moon Bay player to cross third base for four and a third innings.

San Ramon had opportunities to add onto its lead but was unable to do so after the third. San Ramon hurt itself on the base paths, including an 8-4-2 double play on a long single by Camden Reynolds in the fifth.

San Ramon's inability to add an insurance run came back to hurt them in the seventh when Half Moon Bay's Neil Sterling hit a long home run to deep center field to tie the score at four. Half Moon Bay scored another run in the eighth to secure the victory.

"Baseball is a game of inches," Ross said." And we came up a couple inches short. Their pitchers made it tough for us to score, so we scratched out what we could. There were several momentum changes in this one."

San Ramon now has its work cut out for itself needing to win its next five games to take the Section 3 title. Ross, however, thinks that if there's a team that can do go through the losers'bracket, it is his San Ramon team.

"You have to be deep on pitching to make it in these tournaments," Ross said. "And we're deep on pitching. We have a couple guys ready to go for tomorrow."

Ross feels the key to winning tomorrow is putting the ball in play and scoring with runners in scoring position.

"We got to challenge ourselves mentally tomorrow," Ross said. "Once we get our confidence up at the plate, we can be a tough team to beat."

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Half Moon Bay LL 5, San Ramon LL 4

Granada 30000011 — 5 12 1  

San Ramon 20200000 — 4 5 3 

Half Moon Bay (h-ab-r) — Berhammer2-4-1, Fassinger 0-4-0, Sterling 2-4-2, Rupert 0-5-1, Nuno 2-3-0, Watts 2-3-0, Leblanc 0-1-0, Vaughn 2-4-0, Welch 0-2-0, Fritz 0-2-0, Silveria 2-2-1

San Ramon — Ross 0-2-1, Halpin 2-3-2, Reynolds 2-3-1, Gath 0-3-0, Heinz 1-4-0, Veatch 0-2-0, Martin 0-1-0, Van Iderstine 0-3-0, Merchant 0-0-0, Di Dio 0-2-0, Everhart 0-3-0

Pitching

Half Moon Bay — Berghammer 5 1/3 IP, 4 R, 4 ER, 5 H, 5 K, 3 BB, 1 HP; Sterling 2 2/3 IP 0 R, 0 ER, 0 H, 3 K, 2 BB 

San Ramon — Merchant 2/3 IP 3 R, 2 ER, 4 H, o K, o BB; Di Dio 2/3 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 K, 0 BB, 2 HP; Ross 5 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 7 H, 4 K, 1 BB; Gath 1 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 K, 2 BB 

Hitting

2B — Vaughn (Half Moon Bay), Nuno (Half Moon Bay), 2; 3B — Berghammer (Half Moon Bay), Reynolds (San Ramon); HR — Sterling (Half Moon Bay), 7th, none on