Dos Pueblos LL Junior All-Stars survived a late comeback effort and pulled out a 5-4 victory over Goleta Valley South LL in the semifinals of the District 63 Tournament on Wednesday at Fillmore LL.
With the win, DPLL is now heading to the District 63 Championship game on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Fillmore High School. GVSLL will take on Santa Paula LL on Friday with the winner facing DPLL.
After a scoreless top of the first from DPLL’s Max Cruse, the offense got the scoring started in the bottom of the first with RBI singles from Jonah Pepper and Cruse to score Ollie Gesswein and Pepper.
Following those run-scoring hits, Holden Brey scored on a GVSLL error to jump out to an early 3-0 lead.
Cruse stranded a runner in scoring position in the second, and the DPLL offense continued to roll with another run when Isaac Guttierez singled and came all the way around to score following a stolen base and a groundout.
The score stayed at 4-0 until the top of the fourth when GVSLL broke through when Henry Helson singled, stole second and third and was scored on a balk to cut the deficit down to 4-1.
GVSLL then cut the lead in half in the top of the fifth when Chris Youngdahl scored on a ground ball off the bat of Jake Arias. They threatened again with runners on the corners later in the inning, but DPLL’s Grady Felix kept the damage to one run.
DPLL picked up what proved to be a needed insurance run in the bottom of the fifth when Kian Palmer drove in Felix to expand the lead out to 5-2.
However, GVSLL didn’t go away quietly, scoring one run in the top of the sixth thanks to doubles by Kieren Ramaker and Henry Nelson.
After DPLL went down scoreless in the bottom half, GVSLL trailed by two runs with one inning to go.
Youngdahl led off with an infield single and made his way to third on a stolen base and a groundout. Following a fly-out, GVSLL was down to its final out.
For the second time in the game, a balk allowed the run to cross home plate and brought the score to 5-4.
Graham Millington kept the rally alive for GVSLL with a single. However, Jonah Pepper came through for DPLL with a strikeout of the next batter to clinch the win and a spot in the championship game.