The Dos Pueblos LL 13U All-Stars secured the first of two necessary wins over Santa Paula to win the District 63 title with an 8-1 win over Santa Paula LL on Tuesday at El Carro Park in Carpinteria.
DPLL and Santa Paula will now face off in a winner-take-all championship game on Wednesday at 5 p.m. back at El Carro Park.
Matteo Conant led the charge for DPLL in Tuesday’s win, allowing zero earned runs and striking out eight across 6 ⅔ innings while also going 3-for-3 at the plate.
DPLL wasted no time jumping ahead with three runs in the top of the first courtesy of big hits from Tyler Newendorp, Nick Brakka and Conant.
Santa Paula got one of those runs back with an unearned run in the bottom of the third, but the 3-1 lead held until the top of the seventh inning.
The DPLL offense erupted for five runs in the top of the seventh to put the game away for good. Hector Aguilera, Newendorp, Brakka, Conant and Mauricio Galacia all drove in runs in the big inning.
After Conant got the first two outs of the bottom of the seventh, Santiago Grande took over and finished off the victory.
The DPLL 13U team is made up of Cyrus Brunner, Hector Aguilera, Henry Wood, Isaiah Estrella, Julian Flores, Matteo Conant, Mauricio Galicia, Nick Brakka, Ollie Cottle, Santiago Grande, Sebastian Gutierrez, & Tyler Newendorp.
The coaches are Bryan Conant, Chris Lem and Mario Galicia, and the manager is Ken Newendorp.