Club baseball team takes first in Big League Dreams tourney
MANTECA — The Thrill from Morgan Hill hasn’t lost its winning touch.
Composed of several players from the city’s Pony Baseball team that reached this summer’s Bronco World Series, the 13U club took first place with a 4-0 finish in last weekend’s Big League Dreams tournament.
The event in Manteca included talented squads from Solano, Tracy, Monterey, Danville, Pleasanton and two from Gilroy, which squared off in scaled-down replicas of major league stadiums.
Morgan Hill’s championship culminated with a victory by 10-run rule Sunday over Gilroy’s SV Glory in Wrigley Field.
The Thrill’s Alejandro Torres got the title game started with a towering solo home run that cleared the 325-foot wall. In the second inning, Domenic Zanotto lined a two-out, two-run base hit into left-center field, and, after Nikko Nerecina followed with a two-RBI single, Morgan Hill led 5-0.
Gilroy pulled even with two runs in the second, third and fourth innings against Nerecina and Zanotto. But the floodgates opened for Morgan Hill in the fifth inning, as 11 consecutive batters reached base. Shayne Hamblin smacked a booming double, Travis Moulden added a line-drive RBI single to center and Nerecina a bases-loaded triple to left.
The Thrill poured in 11 runs after Torres pitched a scoreless bottom half, ending the game at 15-5.
Saturday Torres and Ethan Cox worked five scorless innings as Morgan Hill defeated Tracy and Monterey by scores of 4-0 and 4-1, respectively. Zanotto scored three runs on the day, and Torres pounded out three hits. Moulden recorded five putouts at shortstop.
The Thrill opened championship Sunday with an 11-5 win over the Gilroy Chaos. Hamblin and Bradley Higgins hit bases-loaded doubles to break open a close game through four innings. Morgan Hill pitcher Sam Aptekar went the distance, allowing two earned runs. Torres and Nerecina had two hits for the Thrill.
