Lucky Strike was a popular cigarette brand among Allied forces during World War II. In fact, the brand was among several included in soldiers’ C-rations.
It was named to recall the gold rush days of the previous century.
A lucky strike certainly defines the current state of San Diego County youth baseball with all-star teams still competing at all levels of Little League Baseball and even the Pony-13 International World Series entering the week.
California District 42 Little League was represented at the 10U and 12U levels at the Southern California state tournament by Sweetwater Valley and California District 41 by Fletcher Hills Little League at the 11U level.
Other county teams at the SoCal state tournament included District 31 champion 4S Ranch (12U division), District 32 champion Point Loma (11U division) and District 70 champion Vista (10U division).
Sweetwater Valley’s 10s won their opening three games to advance to Wednesday’s winners bracket semifinal, topping District 28 champion Temecula, 2-0, District 56 champion Golden Hill, 5-2, and District 71 champion Vineyard, 5-3, to move to within one win of nailing down a berth in Friday’s championship game.
Sweetwater Valley’s 12s team took a detour on the road to the Little League World Series when it dropped its opening game at the state tournament, 3-1, to Golden Hill to drop to the elimination rounds, beating District 62 champion Huntington West, 18-4, and District 25 champion Santa Monica, 6-5, to stay alive.
Fletcher Hills took it on the chin twice to drop out of contention for this year’s state 11s title with back-to-back losses to District 40 champion Encino, 6-1, and District 63 champion Goleta Valley South, 10-9, in the 10-team tournament being played in Oxnard and Port Hueneme.
4S Ranch won its opening game in the 12U division by bombing District 23 champion Upland Foothill 13-1 to remain in the winners bracket. Pt. Loma’s 11s also remained in the winners bracket with a 12-1 opening win over Vineyard as did Vista in the 10s with a 12-2 win over Huntington West.
District 40 champion Sherman Oaks, however, slipped past Vista, 8-7, in the ensuing round to drop the District 70 champions to the challenger bracket. Vista topped District 63 champion Ventura, 11-6, on Monday to advance to Tuesday’s elimination game against Vineyard.
Championship games in both the 11s and 12s divisions are scheduled for Saturday, with the if-necessary double-elimination game slated for Sunday.
The 10s and 11s stop here with state championships while the 12s winner advances to the West Region tournament in San Bernardino that is annually televised.
The older age groups were well stocked at the West Region level with Scripps Ranch (District 32) competing in the Intermediate 50/70 Division, 4SRanch (District 31) in the Junior Division and Spring Valley/Lemon Grove (District 66) in the Senior Division.
Play in the Intermediate and Senior divisions is well under way, with Spring Valley already having qualified for the regional championship game in Oakland while Scripps Ranch had moved to within a win of reaching the semifinals in Nogales, Arizona.
4S Ranch used the Sweetwater Valley Little League fields as a launch pad to the Junior League Baseball West Region tournament after downing San Marino National by a score of 7-5 on July 17 to capture the SoCal state championship.
The West Region Junior Division tournament was slated to start Wednesday in Bend, Ore.
Numbers game
Both Spring Valley and 4SRanch qualified for the West Region tournament by capturing division titles at the Southern California state tournament hosted by California District 42 at Sweetwater Valley Little League.
Spring Valley, the reigning California District 66 and California Section 7, and now Southern California state champion, finished 5-1 at the state tournament, capping tourney play with a 10-0 win over Port Hueneme in the double-elimination final on July 11.
The region tournament faced off July 16 with nine teams, including three from California: Cupertino (Northern California), Spring Valley/Lemon Grove (Southern California) and North Oakland/South Oakland (host team).
Other entrants included Butte Northwest (Butte, Mont.), Crook County (Pineville, Ore.), Douglas, Ariz., Grand Mesa (Grand Junction, Colo.), Pearl City, Hawaii, and Roosevelt University Green Lake (Seattle, Wash.).
Spring Valley/Lemon Grove, dubbed the “Sixty6ers” in homage to District 66, carried a 4-0 tournament record into Tuesday’s championship game against Hawaii (5-1 in the tournament). With an existing loss in tournament play, Pearl City needed to defeat Spring Valley twice to win the championship to gain a berth to the Senior League Baseball World Series later this month in Easley, S.C.
Spring Valley needed just one win in two potential matchups to make the cross country trek to South Carolina, but didn’t need the double-elimination replay following Tuesday’s tight 2-1 win.
“It took everything from top to bottom (to get here),” Sixty6ers assistant coach Kyle Bedsole said. “They (Hawaii) had great pitching and we had to have great at-bats to carry us to the championship.”
The newly crowned SoCal state champions began their regional win streak with an 8-2 victory against Washington on July 16 and followed that with a 10-0 win over Oregon the next day.
Spring Valley raced past Nevada, 14-3, on Saturday and edged North Oakland/South Oakland, 4-3, on Sunday to remain the team to beat in the bracket.
Hawaii defeated Arizona, 6-3, in Monday’s afternoon elimination game to advance to the evening elimination game against the Oakland entry, which ended with an 11-6 Hawaii victory. Arizona finished 3-1 in the tournament with wins over Oregon (8-3 on July 18), Montana (18-1 on July 19) and Northern California (6-1 on July 20).
Hawaii previously defeated Washington (11-1 on July 18), Colorado (15-3 on July 19) and Nevada (12-2 on July 20). Pearl City’s one loss in preliminary play was to the host team (4-2 on July 17).
Host Oakland finished 2-2 in the tournament while NorCal champion Cupertino also went 2-2.
The tournament maintained a double-elimination format throughout.
Hawaii took a 1-0 lead in Tuesday’s championship game in the second inning on a bunt-single before the Sixty6ers responded with two runs on two hits in the top of the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead.
With one out, Romero Briones reached on a baserhit and moved to second base on a walk to Isaac Lederer. Alex Rodriguez moved both runners over on a ground-out and Jacob Abeyta followed with a basehit to plate two runners.
Hawaii advanced a runner to third base in the bottom of the sixth inning but the Sixty6ers were able to close out the frame on a fly ball.
The District 66 champions could not tack on any insurance runs but it didn’t matter as Briones put down Hawaii 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning to close out the contest — and propel Spring Valley/Lemon Grove to its first game in the Senior League Baseball World Series on Saturday, July 26, agianst the host South Carlina District 1 team.
Spring Valley/Lemon Grove takes a cumulative 22-1 record to South Carolina.
The Senior League World Series includes 12 teams: six United States regional champions and six international region champions.
Star power
The Spring Valley/Lemon Grove senior team is a combination of players from Spring Valley Little League and Lemon Grove Little League and thus their uniforms are emblazoned with “Sixty6ers” as an ode to California District 66.
The district encompasses parts of East County, southeastern San Diego and National City.
“This year has been a challenging, yet good year,” District 66 administrator Rolland Slade said. “District-wise this was our first year under 1,500 players since 2021. Our volunteer base stayed fairly steady with 480. We could not do what we do without them.
“Regarding the senior team, they are a good team! Lots of experience and togetherness. Most of them have been playing either with or against each other for the last five years. They have a calm and quiet confidence that comes out during their games.”
That was apparent in Tuesday’s regional championship game while trailing by a run and holding onto a one-run lead.
“They are currently 21-1 which is a fantastic run,” Slade said. “They remind me of the 2012 team from Lemon Grove that went to the Senior League World Series and became the U.S. champions. I was privileged to see them play in person and it was exciting. They have good pitching, solid bats, play good defense and run the bases aggressively. They take advantage of defensive lapses in an unsuspecting way. Just when you begin to think they are not going to run, they do.”
It’s an in-house production.
“Esteban Virto is an experienced manager who definitely studies their opponents and coach Kyle Bedsole, is a young man who came up through Spring Valley Little League and played college baseball.,” Slade said. “In fact, I remember years ago as a youngster, he rode with me to Long Beach to watch one of the Spring Valley teams play in the Southern California state championship. Now, twenty years later, he is coaching a team at the tournament level with the opportunity to go to the World Series. That’s what Little League is all about.”
Intermediate Division
Eleven teams are competing for berths in the Intermediate 50/70 Baseball World Series July 27 to Aug. 3 in Livermore.
Scripps Ranch was undefeated through its opening four games while Central East Maui (Hawaii) was 3-0 to start tourney play.
Scripps Ranch, the California Section 6 champion, defeated the host team, Nogales, Ariz., 5-3 on July 17 and improved to 2-0 with a 16-1 win over Colorado on July 18. The Southern California representative remained undefeated by topping Washington, 7-3, on July 19 and blasting Idaho, 21-0, on July 20.
Lopsided scores have peppered the field with Northern California battering Oregon by a score of 19-0, Washington subduing Idaho by a score of 18-3, Hawaii beating up on Nevada, 27-1, Nogales blanking Idaho 27-0, and Hawaii racing past Oregon, 24-2,
Five other games ended with 10-run marings: Nogales over Washington, 12-2, Colorado over Idaho, 12-2, Arizona over Alaska, 13-3, Nogales over Colorado, 14-4, and Northern California over Alaska, 10-0. Alaksa beat Oregon by nine runs, 14-5.
Two games took place on Monday — Northern California over Nevada 27-0 and Hawaii over and Arizona 22-0 in another pair of routs — to complete pool play and allow the quarterfinals to be seeded.
Four teams took the field on Tuesday to narrow the field to Wednesday’s semifinals. Teams advancing to the quarterfinals included Hawaii (No. 1 seed), Scripps Ranch (No. 2 seed), Northern California (No. 3 seed), Host (No. 4 seed), Alaska (No. 5 seed), Colorado (No. 6 seed), Washington (No. 7 seed) and Arizona (No. 8 seed).
Quarterfinal match-ups featured Hawaii versus Arizona, SoCal versus Washington, NorCal versus Colorado and Host versus Alaska.
The championship game was scheduled Thursday to cap the 29-game tournament.
Junior Division
SoCal champion 4S Ranch was set to open tournament play on Thursday morning against Nevada in the large 14-team field.
Entrants include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, host (Bend, Ore.), Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Northern California, Oregon, Southern California, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
Wednesday’s openers pitted Arizona versus Oregon and Colorado versus Hawaii.
Thursday’s contests also included Northern versus Wyoming, Montana versus Utah and Bend versus Alaska.
Play is continuous over nine days.
4S Ranch completed the state tournament undefeated at 4-0: 8-2 over South Pasadena (District 18), 16-0 over Viejo (District 68) and San Marino National (District 17) by scores of 9-8 and 7-5.
San Marino National defeated Viejo, 8-2, in the elimination bracket semifinal to draw a rematch against 4S Ranch.
Pony Baseball
As a bonus, the Pony-13 World Series is being played July 24-29 in Carlsbad. Teams include the host team from Carlsbad Youth Baseball as well as a second San Diego County qualified team from Tecolote Youth Baseball.
The Pony-13 World Series is being hosted at Avaira Community Park, 6435 Ambrosia Lane, Carlsbad. It’s the second consecutive year that Carlsbad Youth Baseball has hosted the event.
This year’s format includes 10 teams — six from the United States and four international teams. U.S. qualifiers include Chicago (North Zone), Altoona, Pa. (East Zone), Brownsville, Texas (South Zone), Placentia (West Zone), Tecolote (Southwest Zone) and Carlsbad as the host team.
International participants include Tijuana (Mexico), Chiba, Japan (Asia-Pacific Zone), Chinandega, Nicaragua (Caribbean Zone 1) and Vega Alta, Puerto Rico (Caribbean Zone 2).
The format is modified double-elimination bracket play. Two teams receive byes to the second round: Tijuana and Nicaragua.
Openers pitted Placentia versus Vega Alta, Altoona versus Tecolote, Japan versus Chicago and Carlsbad versus Brownsville.
