TURLOCK — Manteca got punched in the mouth in the first inning – hard – but clawed its way back to tie the game in the fourth, only for Turlock American to tally three runs in the fifth that would be the difference in a 9-7 Turlock win for the championship of the Section 6 10-11-year-old All-Star Tournament at Julien Field.
Trailing 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth, Jojo Brizuela reached for Manteca with a one-out single. With two outs, Rex Watson (3 for 3, RBI, two doubles, run) blooped one over the pitcher’s head, beating to throw to first and landing Brizuela on second. Tyler Paul Wentworth singled to advance the runners bringing Seth Van Dyk to the plate.
Van Dyk drilled what appeared to be a solid single to center, but it turned into a bases-clearing double when the ball took a fortunate hop over the center-fielder’s head. Van Dyk took third on a single by Blake Mejorado (3 for 4, two RBI) and came home on a wild pitch to tie the score at 6-6.
Trailing 5-0 in the bottom of the first, Van Dyk got Manteca on the board when he was hit by a pitch, worked his way to third on a pair of wild pitches and came home on Van Dyk’s infield single.
In the second inning Watson powered the first pitch he saw to the left-field fence, scoring Connor Navarro who had singled earlier in the frame to come within 5-2.
Watson doubled again in the sixth and scored on Mejorado’s single to make the score 9-7. Van Dyk batted before Mejorado and was robbed of extra bases when the Turlock left fielder chased down a bullet off of Van Dyk’s bat.
The ball bounced Turlock’s way to start the game. A seeing-eye single and a bunt single got two aboard and they were knocked in with the third consecutive single. The next batter singled to center and was nearly cut down at first with a missile thrown from Mejorado in center. A three-run home run by the next batter gave Turlock a 5-0 lead.
After that home run Wentworth got in a zone on the mound, retiring the next nine batters in a row, striking out five in a row including setting the side down via strikeout in the second. Nate
Dorn helped keep that streak alive when he chased a fly ball down in right field that was heading for the fence, leaping to make the catch that ended the Turlock third.
