When Royals catcher Christian Fuentes snagged a pop fly for the last out Saturday, he did more than cap his team’s 12-6 win over the White Sox for the Spreckels Park Little League minors championship.
That final out notched an entry in the record books.
The Royals are the first minors team in the 24-year history of Spreckels Park to complete the regular season undefeated. The Royals continue their season on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. when they play Weston Ranch to open the District 67 Tournament of Champions at Thiemann Field in Ripon.
Following a pair of walks to start the game, four consecutive hits let to five runs, the maximum allowed per inning except the sixth inning. Navi Murillo (3 for 3, two RBI, run) singled in Joaquin Serrano, K.J. House then belted a triple to plate Christian Fuentes (two runs) and Murilla, Jonah Grubb (2 for 2, home run, three RBI) followed with a single to score House and after taking second on a single by Elijah Velasquez (2 for 2, run), Grubb came home when a throw to get him at third on a wild pitch ended up in left field.
In the second inning, Murillo notched his sixth of eight consecutive strikeouts, setting down the White Sox in order. In the bottom of the second, Antony Munoz singled in Dean Elder and Daniel Teicheira, and Munoz scored on a bases-loaded walk to Joaquin Munoz for an 8-0 Royals lead. lead.
The Royals finished their scoring in the third inning with four runs, two on a home run by Grubb that scored Murillo. Fuentes started the scoring when he came in on Murillo’s single and Daniel Teicheira singled in Velasquez to make the score 12-2.
For the three innings he pitched, Murillo kept the White Sox in check with nine strikeouts, two hits, two walks and two unearned runs.
The White Sox got on the board in the third inning when Parker Chamberlain and Joseph Rodriguez (two runs) scored on a two-out error off the bat of Ruben Cedano (RBI). In the fourth inning, Jax Forstner came in on a Ricky Rodriguez groundout to make the score 12-3 and in the fourth inning, J.T. Brown scored on a bases-loaded walk to Cedano, Chamberlain came in when Jayden Shortridge was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Cedano scored the game’s final run on an error.
