For the Northgate 11-12 year old all stars, the third time was a charm – just like the first and second times were.

Northgate’s 20-1 four-inning mercy-shortened thumping of Mountain House at Manteca Little League’s Lincoln Park for the District 67 championship Saturday was the third banner in as many years for this group of boys, having won the 9-10-year-old and 10-11-year-old flags the last two seasons. 

“These are just a lot of kids who love baseball,” said Jeff Abrew, the coach for the last three seasons. “They are really good kids, they have a good chemistry together and they just love to compete. 

“The boys came prepared to play and they are really focused and they put the bat on the ball really well. I am proud of them.”

Leading 9-1 going into the bottom of the third inning Northgate put the exclamation point on the contest with 11 runs and there could have been more, but Northgate played it station to station with nobody taking more than a single and Northgate ran into the last out of the frame intentionally.

Jack Cunial reached and scored four times for Northgate, going 3 for 3 with a walk and an RBI. Before the station-to-station strategy was imposed Ivan Vieira had a two-RBI double in the first inning that scored Cunial and Tyler Looney and Vieira finished 3 for 4 with three RBI, three runs and a double.

Looney and Justin Severson both reached base four times with Severson going 3 for 3 with four RBI, two runs and a walk. Looney was 2 for 3 with three RBI, a walk, reached on an error and scored three times. Luke Abrew was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run, John Perazzo doubled and scored twice and Anthony Avelar scored twice and walked. 

While the Northgate batters were teeing off, Looney was in command on the hill, striking out five, walking three and allowing just two hits. Those two hits were the only balls that got out of the Northgate infield. 

Next up for Northgate is the Section 6 tournament on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Sunrise Little League in Stockton.