SUISUN CITY — Mother Nature put more heat on with each inning of the Little League District 53 Tournament of Champions Minor Division championship baseball game Saturday morning, and so did R.E. Maher Construction.
After giving up two runs in the top of the first inning, American Canyon’s champion clamped down on Napa American champion Keller Family Real Estate defensively and rallied for a 4-2 victory at Suisun American Little League’s Irving H. Lambrecht Sports Complex.
“Since I’ve been in American Canyon, and I’m going on seven years, we’ve never won a TOC championship in Minors or Majors,” Maher manager Gabe Snook said after his team ruled the area’s 8-11 age group. “We haven’t had a TOC championship in a long time, and I’m pretty happy about it.”
Before its 15-5 win over Napa’s AUL Corp in Wednesday’s semifinals, Keller had been the Kardiac Kids.
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After pulling out a 7-6 win in the last inning against Filippi’s in the Napa city championship game two weeks before, they opened TOC play last Monday by climbing out of a five-run crater to beat the Cordelia Tri-Valley champion, 10-8, and erased sixth- and seventh-inning deficits to stun Filippi’s 8-7 in Wednesday’s extra-inning TOC quarterfinal rematch.
Keller put the heat on American Canyon on Saturday quickly as Riley Chambers began a 3-for-3 day with a single off starting pitcher Caden James and, after a strikeout, scored when Rory Schmitz singled and the incoming throw was off its mark. After a groundout, Schmitz scored on a Brayden Trende single.
James ended the rally with a strikeout, one of six in his five innings of work. He gave up his only walk with two out in the fifth. By then, Maher had taken its 4-2 lead.
“We kinda had to settle in. Our pitcher had to settle in, but we got him settled in,” Snook said. “Our defense just did their job, and we got the job done.”
The bottom of the first was nearly identical to the top half, as American Canyon also got singles from its first, third and fifth batters. Michael Bonfante (1 for 1, two walks) and D’Juan Victorian (2 for 2, double) singled, and Bonfante scored on a single by Aaden Snook (2 for 2). But Keller starter Schmitz stranded runners at second and third with his third strikeout of the frame to keep his team ahead.
After American Canyon went down in order in the second, Nico Kajani led off the third for Napa with a single but was picked off in a rundown, and Chambers was stranded after singling.
Schmitz and Co. stranded American Canyon runners at second and third in the third, but still couldn’t get anything going offensively in the fourth.
American Canyon finally tied things up in the bottom of the fourth after Schmitz hit the first two batters on their hands and reliever Gianni Schillaci gave up the tying RBI single to Snook. Schillaci dug deep after hitting Wyatt Brown to load the bases with no outs, striking out the next three batters to keep the game tied.
In the fifth, Schillaci retired the first two American Canyon batters. But Maher turned up the heat after No. 9 hitter Abram Stickels and Bonfante drew walks. Stickels stole third base, drawing an errant pickoff throw by the catcher that allowed him to score the go-ahead run, and Quincy Espejo singled in Bonfante to make it 4-2.
Coach Snook said the comeback was just a matter of getting his players to be aggressive at the plate.
“All season, we told them ‘You can’t hit if you don’t swing the bat. You gotta swing the bat, you gotta swing the bat.’ Everyone was aggressive today,” he said. “Some struck out, some hit, but they were all aggressive, they all did their job, and I’m super proud of them.”
Keller catcher Jacob Withrow made up for the overthrow by nabbing Espejo on an attempted steal of second to end the inning, which gave the Napa team some momentum going into its final at-bats.
With Bonfante now on the mound, Napa had runners on first and second with one out after a Chambers single and a James Keller full-count walk. But Bonfante struck out the No. 3 and No. 4 batters to end the game. He then jumped into catcher Davin McNalley’s arms as their teammates and coaches swarmed them in celebration.
“Mike Bonfante has come in at the end of every game he’s available and shut it down,” Coach Snook added. “He’s lights out.”
Even though Keller Family Real Estate had come up one at-bat short of a title, manager Joey Schmitz couldn’t wipe a big smile off his face afterward.
“I’m incredibly proud of the players and their growth this season. They all leveled up this year, showed outstanding sportsmanship, and built strong friendships,” he said. “If you told me at the beginning of the season that we’d win the city championship and come in second for TOC, I’m not sure I would have believed it. The Keller team exceeded its potential and had a lot of fun this season.”