Sunnyside Majors All-Stars continued their dominance and that of its Little League program by run-ruling Red Mountain 10-0 in four innings in the state championship at Kingman on Monday night.
The Sunnyside Majors advance to the West Regional tournament at San Bernardino from Aug. 4-10. They join the Sunnyside Seniors and Juniors in regional play.
The Sunnyside Seniors lost their winner’s bracket semifinal game against Hawaii 11-9 on Monday at Sacramento. They will play in an elimination bracket game Tuesday at 6 p.m. against Monday night’s winner between Northern California and Southern California.
The Juniors, who beat Nogales for the state title on Sunday at Sierra Vista, will play in the West Regionals in San Jose that starts Friday.
The Majors beat Red Mountain on Monday night behind a four-inning no-hitter by Damian Lorta, who also went 3 for 3 with a double, two runs and two RBIs. Lorta struck out nine and walked one with only 50 pitches in four innings.
Angel Armenta went 2 for 3 with a run and two RBIs and Francisco Rivero was 2 for 3 with an RBI.
If the Sunnyside Majors make it through the regional tournament, they will advance to the nationally televised Little League World Series at Williamsport, Pa. They are 8-0 through the district and state tournaments, outscoring opponents 88-9 in those games. Five of the wins have been via the mercy rule.
The Sunnyside Seniors rallied from a nine-run deficit in their loss to Hawaii. After trailing 11-2 going to the bottom of the fifth inning, Sunnyside gradually cut into the lead with three runs in the fifth, another in the sixth and three in the bottom of the seventh.
After a couple of runs scored in the seventh, the bases were loaded with no outs. A double play weakened Sunnyside’s threat, although a run scored on the play to cut the lead to 11-9. The inning then ended on a ground out.
Wyatt Stockam, Alonso Bacame and Gerardo Grijalva each had two hits for Sunnyside. Martin Banuelos was 1 for 3 with a triple, two RBIs and two runs.
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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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