The Los Altos 10U All Stars won last weekend’s Cal Ripken SoCal State Tournament with a wild walk-off to win three straight and punch their ticket to next week’s regional tournament in Kingsburg.
Los Altos defeated Frontier 17-0 and Uptown LB 12-2 to open the tournament, then fell to Simi Valley 10-7 to drop into the loser’s bracket. There, they had to overcome Uptown and a great complete-game pitching performance from Amari Johnson. Los Altos won 3-1 despite 10 strikeouts by Johnson, winning on RBI hits from Jason Ham and Vinny Guardabascio. Nolan Butts and Kaden Breuklander combined on the mound to yield just four hits and one run in six innings as the Los Altos defense played well behind them, and the tandem combined to strike out nine.
That set up a “must win both” championship day for Los Altos against Simi Valley, the team that handed them their only loss in the tournament. Los Altos mercy ruled Simi in the first championship game 12-2, with Guardabascio pitching a complete game and yielding just three hits. Tyler Huber and Butts had two RBI each on extra base hits with RBI from Breuklander, Ham, Guardabascio, KJ Sanderlin, Jacob Lourenco, and Knox Guest as well.
That set up a winner-take-all championship game between Los Altos and Simi, with a large crowd at El Dorado Park that included Long Beach State legend Ed Ratleff.
Los Altos trailed 5-4 going into the bottom of the sixth and final inning, but got runners on after singles by Huber and Cooper Kilkenny. The next two batters popped out for Los Altos, leaving runners at first and second with just one out. First baseman Charlie Cramp roped a line drive trouble to right center, scoring runners Butts and O’Connor to send the Long Beach crowd into a frenzy, and the Los Altos team on to the regionals.
Jason Ham got the start for Los Altos on the mound and yielded two runs in four innings, with O’Connor coming in to relieve and giving up two earned runs.
Guardabascio hit .562 in the tournament with nine hits, six extra base hits and six RBI. Huber had a team-high seven RBI, Henry Lewis scored a team-high 10 runs, and Ham had eight hits.
Los Altos advances to the Cal Ripken Regionals in Kingsburg next week with the state champions from Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Hawaii, and Guam as well as the best Northern and Central California teams.
The Los Altos 10s are coached by Jeff Breuklander with assistants Jeff Huber, Justin O’Connor, and Mike Guardabascio. The team is Charlie Cramp, Cooper Kilkenny, Henry Lewis, Jacob Lourenco, Jason Ham, Kaden Breuklander, KJ Sanderlin, Knox Guest, Nolan Butts, Ollie O’Connor, Tyler Huber, and Vinny Guardabascio.
