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Even though the dog days of summer are fast approaching, last week was a busy one at Wilson’s Skip Rowland Field, where the Bruins won three games in four days to secure an American Legion Area 4 Championship.
In a highly competitive bracket that featured a mix of schools from the Moore League—namely Millikan and Lakewood—and other parts of LA County, the Bruins rode dominant pitching performances as they played to a perfect 3-0 record on the week.
“American Legion is a relationship of convenience,” said Wilson head coach Andy Hall. “We know what we’re getting when we play Lakewood and Millikan. It’s local games against programs that you know are well coached.”
Wilson kicked off its tournament run with a 5-2 win over Downey on Monday afternoon. Rising senior Jaden Romero surrendered both runs but managed to go the distance in an opening-round victory.
The Bruins were back at it the next day as they hit they headed north up the 405 to take on El Segundo.
After another complete-game pitching performance—this time from rising junior Cole Mountain—Wilson took down a highly talented Eagles team to secure a place in the semifinals.
“I said before we played El Segundo, ‘We’re playing meaningful baseball on July 9th,’ as opposed to just scrimmaging and knocking it around,” Hall remarked. “[American Legion] has a different flavor to it.”
Hall noted that his squad—like most others in the tournament—was missing many of its varsity regulars due to the various travel tournaments that were happening last week as well. This ultimately proved beneficial as it opened up opportunities for Wilson’s JV and frosh standouts from the past season, particularly in the Bruins’ final matchup against Millikan.
Thursday afternoon’s home win over the Rams was the lone victory that required two pitchers.
Shane Gy got the start and gave up a run in the first inning before shutting down the Rams offense over the next three frames. Cooper George then took over and tossed four brilliant innings of his own as the Bruins sneaked past Millikan 2-1 in eight innings.
Gy and George are both rising sophomores who had excellent years at the frosh level this past season.
Missing many of their best bats, Hall said that it was a full team effort to manufacture runs throughout the tournament. But he specifically highlighted rising senior Adrian Marquez for grabbing the game-winning RBI double against the Rams.
While Wilson’s win over Millikan technically put the Bruins into the championship, that final game was never played.
With the tournament’s double-elimination tournament format, Wilson’s opponents in the theoretical championship game would’ve been the El Segundo squad that it took down just a few days prior. Since the top two teams from Area 4 would be advancing to the American Legion State Tournament anyway, neither coaching staff felt it was necessary to play a final.
“It’s been a long summer already, so we’re not gonna wear ourselves out playing each other one more time when we’re both going to the [state] tournament,” said Hall.
Wilson was ultimately awarded the Area 4 title on the merit of its perfect record and prior win over El Segundo.
The championship should also mean a favorable draw as Wilson advances to the state tournament, which is the next phase of American Legion baseball. But with that being said, the competition will almost certainly get stiffer.
“As always when you get to the state level of American Legion, you’re no longer playing potential high school varsity teams,” said Hall. “Now you’re playing 19-and-under. We’re going to run into some guys who’ve played a first year of junior college baseball already, but it’ll be a good experience—especially for the younger guys—to see the game played at a faster pace.”
The location of the state tournament has continued shifting over the past few years, but this time around the Bruins will be able to stay relatively local as all tournament games will be held at Hart Park in Orange County. Tournament play will run from July 25-29.
