The Dos Pueblos LL Junior All-Stars defeated crosstown rival Goleta Valley South LL by a score of 7-2 to clinch the District 63 championship on Saturday at Girsh Park.
DPLL will now advance to the Section 1 tournament beginning on June 27th, also being hosted at Girsh Park. Saturday’s district title is the fifth in a row for the core of players on the DPLL Junior All-Star team.
The DPLL offense jumped out to an early lead thanks to an RBI groundout by Cash Phillips and an RBI single off the bat of Andrew Wang to go up 2-0 in the bottom of the first.
That score remained until the top of the fourth, when GVSLL tied the game up at 2-2 on an RBI double by Elias Rector and a run-scoring groundout by Hackson Brennan.
DPLL immediately responded in the bottom half as Jacob Stock drove in Matias Csordas on a well-executed squeeze bunt and Juan Meza singled home Luka Wilson to grab the lead back at 4-2.
GVSLL threatened to cut into the deficit with two baserunners in the fifth, but DPLL escaped the jam and preserved the two-run lead thanks to a strong outing in relief from Zane Pflanzer.
DPLL then expanded its lead to 7-2 in the bottom of the sixth as Pflanzer and Csordas each tallied run-scoring hits, while Csordas came in on an error to round out the scoring.
After Cash Phillips had started the game for DPLL, Pflanzer came in and slammed the door across the final 2 â…“ innings to finish off the win.
The DPLL Junior All-Stars are Andrew Wang, Caleb Fante, Cash Phillips, Jacob Stock, James Chou, Juan Meza, Lincoln Hwang, Luka Wilson, Matias Csordas, Oliver Palmer, Philip Lowe and Zane Pflanzer.
The team is managed by Chad Wang with coaches Ray Pflanzer, Matt Stock, and Adam Phillips.