MH Bronco all-stars win Regional title, advance to West Zone
tourney in Hawaii
With visions of bright, white sand beaches and swaying palm trees in their heads, the Morgan Hill Bronco A all-stars were determined not to let anything stand in their way en route to the Regional Tournament title last weekend.
Bolstered by a relentless offensive effort, the MH Bronco all-stars swept aside nemesis Blossom Valley No. 1 22-5 in a 10-run “mercy-rule” victory to claim the regional title and stamp their tickets to the West Zone Tournament in Maui.
“This team wanted to go to Hawaii,” MH Bronco Manager Ken Bradley said. “The thing that’s great about this team is they just keep getting better.”
Accompanied by a contingent of parents, the Bronco all-stars were scheduled to practice this week, then take off for the South Pacific on Thursday en route to their West Zone tourney opener on Friday.
The tournament will feature a pool-play round-robin format. MH will be placed in the Red Division and play Kauai in its first game on Friday, then the Northwest Regional winner (Washington and Oregon) on Saturday, and finish up pool play against the Maui all-star team on Sunday.
The team with the best pool-play record will face the Blue Division winner on Monday, Aug. 1 for the West Zone championship.
The Zone champ will then come back to Monterey,Calif. and play in the Pony Baseball World Series.
The team, made up of mostly players from the Mustang all-star team that reached the West Zone tourney two years ago, is seeking to become the first MH Bronco squad to make it to the Pony World Series.
But the squad that almost didn’t make it out of the Sectional Tournament, which it hosted at Britton, isn’t taking anything for granted.
That’s because the team lost its only game in all-stars competition this season to the same Blossom Valley No. 1 team that it crushed for the regional title, then nearly lost in the loser’s bracket
After falling to BV No. 1 in the winner’s bracket finale, the MH Bronco all-stars had to battle back from a four-run deficit against Los Altos in the loser’s bracket.
But MH rallied to tie, then win in extra innings, and beat BV No. 1 twice the following day for the sectional title.
Bradley said that experience was a catalyst for the team’s success since.
“That was a little bit of a wake-up call,” he said. “We were kind of going through the motions and we thought we were good. We really came of age (during the Sectional tourney).”
Bradley said this year’s Bronco all-star team is well-equipped for a run at the West Zone tourney.
“(Hitters) one through nine can all hit it out of the park and they’re all good, patient hitters,” Bradley said. “And, they play good defense. Our pitching is five or six deep, too, and has been outstanding.”
MH is led by top pitchers Matt Carroll, Nick Ramirez, Chris Bradley, Nick Hagiperos and Bryan Bradley.
In Saturday’s regional finale, the MH Bronco all-stars were facing a BV No. 1 team that not only had a victory against the local team under its belt but had battled back through the loser’s bracket for another shot at the hometown club.
MH went with power pitcher, and cleanup batter, Carroll. But Carroll tweaked his arm in the bottom of the first inning and had to leave the game.
Leading 1-0 when Carroll suffered the injury, MH called on Nick Ramirez, who replaced Carroll on the hill and went four innings, striking out two and giving up only two hits.
In the top of the second, MH exploded for six runs to take a lead it would not relinquish.
Then, in the fourth inning, MH got some breathing room when Ramirez singled and J.P. Howard hit a home run. Howard went 3-for-4 with four RBIs filling in for Carroll in the clean-up spot.
With a comfortable 10-2 lead, MH unleashed a scoring frenzy of 12 runs in its half of the fifth inning to put the game away for good.
Chris Bradley, Ryan Williams, Mike Singleton and Hagiperos all hit home runs in the inning.
Note: The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce contributed commemora-tive pins for the Bronco all-stars to exchange with their West Zone counterparts.
