The Long Beach PONY 14-Under All-Stars won twice on Sunday in West Hills to take the Zone tournament and advance to their fifth World Series in the last 12 years. Long Beach won the world championship in 2008, and in 2012 when they made their last appearance.
The 2018 DICK’S Sporting Goods PONY League World Series starts Friday in Washington, Pennsylvania. Long Beach is one of two teams with a bye to open the 10-team tournament, and will start against the winner of Washington County and Bronx, New York on Sunday at noon. Long Beach was the national runner-up in 2007, and finished third in 2011.
Long Beach faced elimination three times in the last two days. The local All-Stars scored two sixth-inning runs on Saturday to come back and beat Maui, and then scored five runs in the seventh and final inning to eliminate Maui 13-10 on Sunday morning. Long Beach then defeated Tecolote 8-1 to win the Zone tournament and punch their ticket to Pennsylvania. They went 13-1 this summer while winning three tournaments.
Brendan Wilkinson, Myles Patton and Ryan Skjonsby all had four RBIs on Sunday. Pitcher Jack Dhein only gave up one run in six innings against Tecolote.
LONG BEACH ROSTER
Ryan Burack, Adam Cramer, Sam DeCarlo, Jack Dhein, Jake Ehmann, Ryan Geck, Jackson Haberland, Jesse Kolodny, Myles Patton, Charlie Royle, Israel Santillan, Ryan Skjonsby, Robert Voss, Brendan Wilkinson
Manager: Ken Jakemer
Coaches: Matt Heavin, Dan Leavitt, John Haberland, Darrel Icenogle
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