SALIDA — Ripon’s Jackson Headryk laced a two-RBI single up the middle with two outs in the fourth inning Thursday to give his team the lead for good in a 4-2 win over Northgate for the District 67 11U All-Star Tournament championship at Salida Park.
Ripon went into the bottom of the fourth trailing, 2-1. Blake Nieuwsma was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and went to third on Brett Yamasaki’s infield single. Nieuwsma came in on a Brayden Viss single to tie the score, setting up Headryk’s eventual game-winner that plated Viss and Yamasaki.
“The boys played great,” Ripon coach Jon Cloward said. “It was a ton of fun to be able to come out here and coach these kids.
“They are great listeners. They executed everything that we asked them to do the entire tournament. They came out here and they deserved to win this game.”
Timmy Swails walked in the first inning and worked his way to third, coming into score on a passed ball for a 1-0 Ripon lead. Logan Kootstra had the only extra-base hit for Ripon with a double to lead off the fifth inning, and had the second-best fielding play of the night with a running catch in left-center with one out in the third.
The best fielding play of the contest was the third out of that inning. With Northgate runners on first and second, Mikey Albert hit a shot to deep center where Nieuwsma gunned the ball to catcher Headryk for the out at home to end the inning.
Swails started on the mound and pitched into the fifth, giving up one earned run with five strikeouts and two hits. He was relieved by Viss who went the final 1.2 scoreless innings, striking out two and yielding one hit.
Grant Adams singled to start the Northgate second and came in on Harry Coenenberg’s single to tie the game at 1-1. Taking advantage of two Ripon errors in the third, Ryan Bisordi singled in Julian Alonzo to take a 2-1 lead.
Bisordi pitched the first two innings, striking out three with two hits and one unearned run. Mikey Albert went the final three frames, striking out six with three hits and being tagged with the other three Ripon runs.
Ripon advances to the Section tournament beginning Saturday, July 12, in Salida.
