Summer All Star Tournaments

Sectionals

Bronco 11U A team wins Sectional, advances to Regionals in Vacaville

Morgan Hill defeated Blossom Valley to take the first Bronco-11 Sectional title and advance to the Regional tournament in Vacaville this weekend.

Morgan Hill took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 2nd inning...and then scored 16 runs to blow the game open. Morgan Hill batted twice through the order, bringing 20 batters to the plate in the inning.

Game notes:
Mike Porras and Bradley Higgins each had 3 hits. Ian McGowen had 2 hits, and Ben Hughes scored 5 times.

Mark Quinby pitched 3 innings for the win, and Ethan Cox pitched the final 2 innings for the save.

It was Morgan Hill's 13th win in a row...

Morgan Hill's first Regional game is vs. Stockton on Saturday at Noon... in Vacaville at John Arlington Park.

Read more at the Morgan Hill Times...

Bronco 12U Season ends

Monday, July 14th - Los Altos/Mountain View eliminated the Morgan Hill 12U A team in a 12-6 victory at Britton. Los Altos jumped out to an 8-0 lead early, but Morgan Hill battled back to get within 9-5, before Los Altos pulled away for good.

In the 3rd, Nick Giordano reached and Joshua Priest drove him in. In the 4th, Garrett Taylor started the rally with a walk and a steal. Frank Tomasello scored him with a single, and Giordano scored Tomasello with a double to right. Mitch Crowley singled in Giordano, and Adam Belluomini drove in Crowley.

The Los Altos defense then shut down Morgan Hill until the 7th, when Priest led off with a double, and Mike Jarvis drove him in with a single to right.

Adam Belluomini pitched 2 innings for Morgan Hill giving up just two hits, and Taylor Pullen pitched 5.

Bronco 12U A team wins

Sunday, July 13th - After losing a tough first round game to San Jose Pacific, the Bronco 12 year-old A team eliminated the Bronco B team 6-5 in a defensive battle on Sunday. Both teams played solid defense, with the runs scored off of clutch hits and sacrifice flies and bunts.

The A team scored in the first with Dylan Kral hitting a sacrifice to center to score Adam Belluomini. The B team struck back in the second when Anthony Ivery led ripped a 3-RBI double to left, scoring Josiah Liardon, Wes Guild and Robbie Yamat.

The A team answered in the bottom of the second with Frank Tomasello hitting a sacrifice to right to score Jarrod Cerniglia. The A team tied it up in the 3rd off Kral's RBI single to left center, scoring Mitch Crowley.

But the B team took the lead again when Sean Aitken started a 2-out rally with a double to the left. After Liardon worked a walk and stole second, Morgan Brum ripped a 2-RBI single up the middle.

In the bottom of the 7th, trailing 5-4, Joshua "JP" Priest bunted Mitch Crowley in to tie the game., and also reached first and stole second safely with the infield in. Priest scored one batter later on a passed ball to win the game.

Trenton Cisewski tripled for the B team and pitched 3 innings, giving up just one hit. Morgan Brum pitched two innings giving up one run off 2 hits. Anthony Ivery pitched one inning, giving up one hit.

For the A team, Adam Belluomini pitched 3 innings, giving up just 2 hits. Nick Gordano pitched 4 innings, giving up just 3 hits and earned the win.

Bronco 11U A team takes first round win over Los Altos / Mountain View
July 8, 2008 San Jose: The Morgan Hill 11U A Team defeated the defending Sectional champions of Los Altos / Mountain View by a score of 12-6. Morgan Hill overcame some errors caused by first-round tensions and got their offense going.

Mike Porras pitched 3 innings allowing 2 earned runs. Ben Hughes pitched the final 4 innings allowing only one earned run.

Bronco 11U A team takes second round over Lakewood
The Bronco 11U A team shut-out Lakewood 5-0 to remain in the winner's bracket of the Santa Clara 11U Bronco Sectional Tournament in San Jose.

Mark Quinby pitched 5 innings striking out 6. Alejandro Torres pitched 2 innings striking out two.

No Lakewood runner reached 3rd base. A key play was a running catch by Bradley Higgins in foul territory down the right field line with men on 1st and 2nd.

Morgan Hill started off the scoring in the 2nd when Jack Affourtit drove in Patrick Muller (who reached on a walk). In the 3rd, Mike Porras was hit by a pitch... and scored on wild pitch. In the 4th, Porras drove in Mark Quinby on an RBI double... and was later scored on an RBI single by Dominic Zanotto.

Morgan Hill finish their scoring in the 6th when Higgins doubled and was driven home on a single by Quinby.

Hitting:
Higgins had two hits and scored a run.
Quinby had two hits, scored a run... and drove in a key run.
Mike Porras had two hits, drove in a run..... and scored a run.
Ethan Cox and Ben Hughes each pitched in with a hit.

Bronco 11U A team holds off Moraga

Morgan Hill survived a furious comeback from Moraga to hold on for a 10-9 victory in the 3rd round of the Bronco Sectional baseball tournament in San Jose.

The Morgan Hill victory assures them of a spot in the Bronco 11U Regional in Vacaville slated to start July 21st.

Coming into the winner's bracket showdown, Moraga had scored 38 runs in victories over San Jose Pal and perennial sectional powerhouse Blossom Valley. Morgan Hill reached the winner's bracket game with victories over defending sectional champ Los Altos 12-6 and Sunnyvale/Lakewood 5-0.

Morgan Hill jumped out to a five run lead in the second inning when after successive singles by Alejandro Torres, Josh Alaniz, and Cole Campi, Domenic Zanotto lined the first pitch he saw up the alley in left center to drive in Torres and Alaniz. Campi then scored on a past ball and Zanotto finished off the scoring on a fielder's choice/RBI by Bradley Higgins.

Mike Porras started for Morgan Hill and held the powerful Moraga squad to only two runs over 4 innings of work. Porras scattered four hits and struck out two.

Morgan Hill struck for five more runs in the fifth inning. Mark Quinby led off with a single and was immediately moved to second on a single by Porras. After Ethan Cox reached on an error, Alejandro Torres drove in Quinby with his second hit of the game. Jack Affourtit was hit by a pitch which scored Porras and after Cole Campi nailed an 0-1 offering to left for his second hit of the game, Morgan Hill had tallied four. The scoring was completed when Zanotto lined his second hit of the game to score Torres.

Moraga chipped away with two runs in the bottom of the 5th to close the gap to 10-4.

In the bottom of the 6th, Moraga tallied five more runs to make it a one run lead for MH going to the 7th.

Ben Hughes, who had taken over in the bottom of the 5th for Torres, was running out of gas when he struck out the lead off hitter in the bottom of the 7th. After consecutive singles put the tying & winning runs on base, a medium deep fly ball to Zanotto in right center moved up the runners with two outs.

On a 2-2 pitch, Hughes struck out the final Moraga batter to preserve the victory for Morgan Hill.

Morgan Hill plays the winner of the Sectional loser's bracket on Tuesday at 5:30 at Herman School.

Pinto A team wins the Morgan Hill Sectional
The Pinto A team racked up 4 straight mercy-rule wins at the Britton Sectional to take the Sectional Championship.

Pinto Morgan Hill Sectional Brackets...

Pinto B2 Team takes 3rd place at Calero

The Pinto B2 team went 2-2 at the Blossom Valley Sectionals at Calero School. They defeated Morgan Hill's B3 team and Seaside, while losing to Blossom Valley's A and B teams. Great job!

Pony-13 team beats Blossom Valley and Saratoga to finish with a 2-2 record

Morgan Hill 1   Blossom Valley 0

Aidan Styczynski pitched 6 shutout innings to lead Morgan Hill to a 1-0 victory over Blossom Valley.

Morgan Hill 10    Saratoga 6

Morgan Hill continues to advance in the loser bracket. Next up is Los Altos on July 3rd.

Morgan Hill lost twice to Los Altos to bow out of the tournament.

Great job Pony 13's!

Pony 13 Sectional Brackets...

Regionals
Pinto A team goes 2-2 in Regionals at San Pablo
The Pinto A Team then advanced to the Regional tournament at Kerry School in San Pablo on July 5th. After dropping a heartbreaker to Brentwood in the first game, they defeated Roseville and Rocklin before falling to Blossom Valley and ending the season.

Congratulations on an exciting tournament run!
Pinto Regional Brackets...

Bronco 11U Team gets to Regional title game in Vacaville, ends 6-2 in tournament play

Stockton 15    Morgan Hill 10

The Bronco 11U team fell behind early to Stockton and could not quite recover the lead in game 1.

Morgan Hill 5     Vacaville 4

The Bronco 11's regained their come-from-behind poise to beat Vacaville on their own turf. Trailing 4-2, Morgan Hill scored 3 runs in the 6th to take a lead they would not relinquish. Keep it going MH!

Read more at the Morgan Hill Times...

Morgan Hill 17     Stockton 5

The Bronco 11's returned the favor to Stockton by beating them 17-5 and getting into the championship game.

Blossom Valley 6     Morgan Hill 4

The Bronco 11's fell short of the Regionals by losing to Blossom Valley in a tight game. BV scored 2 runs in the bottom of the 6th to squeeze by our Bronco 11 team.

Read more at the Morgan Hill Times...

Congratulations Bronco 11's (aka Morgan Hill Thrill) on a GREAT SEASON!

Bronco 11 Regional Brackets

Palomino World Series
August 8-11, 2008
San Jose Municipal Stadium
588 E. Alma Ave, San Jose, CA 95112

The Palomino World Series brings the top PONY baseball teams with players 17-19 years old to compete in a 4 day tournament culminating in the World Series on the last day. Teams come from all over the world including the USA, Korea, Puerto Rico, Japan, Mexico, and other competing countries. Former Pony players have included both Bobby and Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Ken Griffey Jr. and Sr., Ryan Howard, Jeff Kent, Mark McGwire, Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, Barry Zito, Gary Sheffield, and J.T. Snow.

Visit www.palominoworldseries.com for more information

To order tickets directly from San Jose PAL, call 408.272.9725 or email info@palominoworldseries.com.

Summer Tournaments

Morgan Hill Bronco 11U's Captures Fremont 12 and under 4th of July Tourney
The Morgan Hill "Thrill", an 11 year old and under (11U) all star team from MH Pony Baseball, won four consecutive games, including a stunning come from behind victory in the championship game, to capture the Firecracker 4th of July Tournament in Fremont.

After rolling thru the their first three games by a combined score of 36-6, Morgan Hill was riding high as they entered Sunday's championship game vs. a 12U Team from Burlingame.

After a first inning home run by Burlingame pitcher Brandon Wong, MH answered when Mike Porras led off the bottom of the second inning with a single to right field. Porras then scored on a fielder's choice/RBI ground-out by Bradley Higgins.

Burlingame scored a pair of un-earned runs off of MH pitcher Alejandro Torres in the third inning, and added another pair of runs in the fourth inning when Wong hit his second homer of the game, a 2 run bullet that cleared the left field fence by 40 feet.

Morgan Hill inched back into the game by scoring a run in the bottom of the fourth inning to make the score 5-2. Mike Porras reached on another single and later scored on an RBI ground out from Patrick Muller.

Torres and Ethan Cox held the much older and bigger Burlingame team to only three earned runs thru six innings.

Great defense was provided by Ben Hughes and Ian McGowen.

Hughes ended a Burlingame rally in the fourth inning when he went deep into the hole at SS and fired quickly to get the out at first base.

Similarly, McGowen ended a rally, this time in the sixth inning when he threw-out a Burlingame runner attempting to score on a base hit to right field.

After Burlingame scored two additional un earned runs to make the score 7-3 thru 6.5 innings, the situation looked bleak for Morgan Hill.

Down to their final three outs, MH set out to repeat their come from behind victory of one month ago when they scored four runs with two outs to defeat a Petaluma team on Memorial Day.

Ethan Cox quickly got things going when he lined a bat hop single to second.
Josh Alaniz then singled to center.

After a walk to Cole Campi which pushed Wong's pitch count near 100, MH was finally able to get the hard throwing right hander off the mound.

After a pitching change, lead off hitter Ben Hughes' sacrifice fly drove in Cox to make the score 7-4.

Domenic Zanotto worked a walk which loaded the bases for Mark Quinby.

Quinby lined a single to right scoring Alaniz.

Mike Porras followed with his third hit of the game to drive in Campi making the score 7-6.

Zanotto then scored the tying run when Patrick Muller was hit by a pitch.

With the winning run on third, Alejandro Torres lined a double to left scoring Quinby to the end the game 8-7 Thrill.

GAME NOTES:
Josh Alaniz got the win for Morgan Hill by pitching the seventh inning.
Mike Porras had 3 hits and scored 3 runs.
Mark Quinby had 2 hits and scored twice.
Alejandro Torres had two hits (game winner) and pitched three innings.

Morgan Hill plays in the Pony/Bronco 11U Sectional Tournament in San Jose on July 8th.