By Julianne Homokay
Special to the Alpine Mountaineer
On the night of June 26, the Mountains Little League (MLL) Junior Division won their district All-Star Tournament for the first time for any of the divisions since 2014, facing down Newmark Little League from the city of San Bernardino.
Major league-level game action from the All-Stars.
Dana Merola, secretary of the. MLL board, describes the game as being “right out of a movie, with tense close calls.” The MLL team started out “down by two after the first four innings,” she said via email. Then the Mountains boys broke away “in the bottom of the 5th with seven runs, comprised of RBIs by Elliot Willemse, Rhyder Sievers and a home run by Jayden Clark… all while holding the opposing team from scoring, and ending the game with a walk-off win of 10 to 3.”
The other contributors to the team include Henry Arendondo, Trevor Berlanga, Lachlan Collins, Teagan Gray, Mason Johnstone, Sebastian Lopez, Kiedis Moss, Nathan Osuna and Charlie Paxton.
The team, comprised of boys aged 12 to 14, was led by Manager Joe Daniels and his assistant coaches, Mike Johnstone and Mike Clark. “I feel fortunate to be able to coach these young men,” said Daniels of his team and their win. “This group of boys is so special.” The League will be carrying their winning banner in the Jamboree Days parade on Saturday, July 6 in Crestline.
What’s next for the boys? The team now heads to the next level of tournament play, the Sectionals. In this phase, the MLL team will face other local district champions, and the winners of those levels will move on to State championships. Not afraid to dream big, Merola says that “this group of talented boys has been spoken about highly throughout the district and could very well have a chance to advance farther than any other team in MLL history,” as the winners of the State level tournaments move on to what’s nationally known as the Little League World Series. The Mountains’ team’s next match-up is on July 2 at Fiscalini Field in San Bernardino.
Mountains Little League is a local baseball and softball organization that provides children from ages 3-1/2 to 16 the opportunity to play, learn and grow their skills in these sports. MLL is a part of Western Regional Little League and District 43 that is comprised of a number of local cities and leagues in the Inland Empire.
For more information, and to keep up with MLL Junior Division’s progress, visit their Facebook page, facebook.com/MountainsLittleLeague/, or find them on Instagram @mountainslittleleague.
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