The Bronco 12 All-Stars beat Los Altos/Mountain View 13-3 in
Monday’s section final
MORGAN HILL — With reserved pride, the Morgan Hill Green All-Stars on Monday celebrated the first of what they hope will be three Bronco 12 pennants claimed this summer.
They dispensed with Los Altos/Mountain View, 13-3, in the Morgan Hill Section championship round at Britton Middle School, and emphatically punched their ticket to the eight-team Northern California Region Tournament, the last stop before the Aug. 4-11 World Series.
The Green All-Stars will open the double-elimination tournament at noon Saturday in San Jose’s PAL Stadium.
“They can’t wait to get back out there,” Morgan Hill coach Mike Zanotto said Tuesday. “We’re going to practice a few times this week. From here, the competition goes way up, and they know it.”
After crushing every team in their host sectional, winning each shortened contests by 10-run rule, the Green All-Stars will take on some of the best teams in the state. Their first opponent is Modesto’s Bel Passi All-Stars, winners of the North Division East Region championship.
Zanotto did a double take when he saw their team photo.
“They look like a freshman high school team,” he said. “They rolled through their sectional — just like the rest of the teams we’re going to see.
“We were expected to win sectionals and we won it. I don’t think there’s a favorite in a region like this. I’d say there are five really strong teams; any one of them can win it.”
The field includes Morgan Hill’s biggest rival, Blossom Valley, which, a year ago, eliminated Zanotto’s team and Bel Passi on the way to winning their Bronco 11 regional.
Morgan Hill and Blossom Valley split two games at a Fourth of July-weekend tournament, but will likely not meet again.
“It’s less than 50 percent,” Zanotto said. “If we both win our first two games, we’ll probably play in the winner’s bracket final. But we’re not looking ahead to them.”
The Green All-Stars, who will hereby drop their color designation, looked ready for any team Monday. They scored six runs in the second inning on the way to building a 7-0 lead.
“It was one of those games where we had eight kids drive in a run,” Zanotto said. “We did it in a variety of ways.”
The second-inning outburst started with a bases-loaded two-run hit by Domenic Zanotto and continued with RBIs by Ben Hughes, Mike Porras and Mark Quinby, who drove in a pair.
Hughes finished with three hits, Domenic Zanotto reached base three times and scored twice, and Cole Campi and Josh Alaniz contributed run-scoring singles. Travis Moulden added a squeeze bunt that scored Brad Higgins.
Defensively, Morgan Hill received a great play by Patrick Muller at second base to save a run. It complemented a shut-down start by Quinby, who went four innings. The 5-foot-9 redhead struck out eight, including three to retire the side in the first.
“Mark’s just a stud,” his coach said. “It takes pitchers like him to make it this far. You’ve just got to have the horses, four or five studs at least. We’ve got a whole bunch of them.”
