Pleasanton Preps: World Series bids show prowess of Tri-Valley youth baseball 

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How good is youth baseball in the Tri-Valley?

Very good. 

Almost hard to believe it good.

Here we are in August with some schools back in session and the others having started this week. Yet there were four – yep four – teams still competing in postseason baseball.

Locally we had teams from Granada-Livermore Baseball and Bollinger Canyon Little League play for the United States Championship in the Little League Intermediate 50/70 Baseball World Series this past Saturday.

In a battle between teams from Livermore and San Ramon for the U.S. title in front of a packed house at Max Baer Park in Livermore, Granada-Livermore came away with a 5-3 win to advance to the World Championship Game the next night.

Bollinger scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 3-1 lead, but Granada-Livermore came back with three in the top of the sixth, then added one in the top of the seventh for the final margin.

It was the fifth time this summer the two teams squared off, with Granada-Livermore ending with a 3-2 edge. Bollinger beat them twice in winning the District 57 title and the automatic host berth in the World Series.

Granada-Livermore battled back, winning the sectionals, state and Western Region titles to qualify for the World Series.

That the team from South Korea beat Granada-Livermore to take the world title with an 11-4 win Sunday night really doesn’t matter.

The boys who united the city of Livermore for an amazing postseason run that culminated in a United States title made it a summer to remember not just for themselves but the entire community.

No matter what happens to the rest of their lives, for one year they were the best 13-year-old Little League team in the United States – and that’s pretty cool. No one can ever take that away from them.

At the same time San Ramon Valley started competition in the 12-year-old Little League Western Regionals in San Bernardino, one step from the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Penn.

The team ran into a buzzsaw from the Sweetwater Valley Little League in Bonita, a city in San Diego County, falling 16-4 on Sunday.

San Ramon Valley was eliminated from the tournament Monday when they fell 7-5 to Arizona after giving up four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
SRV was down 7-3 heading into the sixth but made it closer, scoring twice and leaving two runners on base.

And in Babe Ruth action, the Tri-Valley 14-year-old team is taking part in the Babe Ruth World Series in Eagle Pass, Texas.

The team is made up of players from San Ramon, Danville, Pleasanton and Livermore who are rising high school freshmen.

The team opened the tournament with a 10-8 win over Mexico on Saturday, then followed with a 14-0 win over Aruba on Sunday to move to 2-0 in the tournament.

In the third game, they outscored the previously unbeaten Caribbean representative by a 13-12 final.

They had a game with Reedsburg, Wis., on the schedule Tuesday before heading into bracket play, with results pending. Bracket play was set to begin Wednesday and end Saturday.

The team is Samuel Alikian, Liam Manter, Mason Colliss, Connor Jones, Kyle LeGuluche, Alex Wierzbinski, Jack Saylors, Connor Moylan, Logan Sandmann, Liam Kush, Grant Perotti, Craig Bessieres, Colby Morris, Gavin Murray, Connor McMillan, Daniel Seita, Jake Takeuchi and Zach Takeuchi. The coaches are Mike Jones, Danny Murray, Chris LeGuluche and Shaun Moylan.

Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.

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