The Sunnyside Seniors Little League All-Stars team is a game away from earning the state title in the tournament played at Rumsey Park in Payson.
Sunnyside, 3-0 in the tournament, will play Nogales in the championship series tonight at 6. Sunnyside needs only a win over Nogales for the title. Nogales must beat Sunnyside twice to claim the championship.
Sunnyside beat Nogales 13-8 in a semifinal game Tuesday and Nogales defeated the Diamondbacks from District 3 by a score of 7-4 in an elimination bracket game Wednesday.
Sunnyside has shown plenty of power at the plate in the tournament.
In a first round game, won by Sunnyside 16-5 over Buckeye, Alonso Bacame had two home runs, Armondo Valenzuela hit a grand slam and Martin Bañuelos had a solo shot. Lalo Torres was the winning pitcher.
Sunnyside then beat Winslow 17-2 in a second round game behind home runs by Roman Cañez, Gerardo Grijalva and Valenzuela. Jesse Molina was the winning pitcher.
In the victory over Nogales on Tuesday, Bacame added two more home runs and Grijalva hit another. The winning pitcher was Wyatt Stockam.
Here is the Sunnyside roster:
- Jesse Molina (Sunnyside HS)
- Armondo Valenzuela (SSHS)
- Robert Camargo (SSHS)
- Eduardo (Lalo) Torres (SSHS)
- Wyatt Stockam (SSHS)
- Martin Bañuelos (SSHS)
- Alex Fontes (SSHS)
- Alex Lopez (SSHS)
- Roman Canez (SSHS)
- Kris Quiroz (Desert View HS)
- Alonso Bacame (DVHS)
- Sebastian Valdez (Salpointe Catholic HS)
- Francisco Olivares (SSHS)
- Gerardo Grijalva (SSHS)
- Gabriel Ortiz (Tucson HS)
- Anthony Rodriguez (SSHS)
Coaches: Matt Garcia and Jaime Garcia
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon.
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