The Goleta Valley South Little League 11U All-Stars earned a pair of wins to advance to the Section 1 championship game at El Rio Little League on Sunday.
GVSLL defeated Orcutt LL on Thursday and Conejo Valley LL on Friday to punch their ticket to the title game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
In Thursday’s matchup, GVSLL opened the tournament with a 7-5 victory over Orcutt LL.
After Orcutt scored three runs in the top of the second, GVSLL answered with four in the bottom half thanks to RBI singles by Liam Anderson, Rafael Berumen and Ethan Sierra, and a run-scoring double off the bat of Nathan Diaz.
GVSLL added to its lead in the third with an RBI single by Dylan Corlett and a two-run double from Brook Caldwell.
Orcutt rallied with a pair of runs in the fifth, but a strong showing by the GVSLL defense stopped the scoring there to pull out the 7-5 victory.
Anderson started on the mound and threw two innings before handing the ball off to Ben Hause, Luke Brennan and Caldwell in relief.
GVSLL followed up that win with an extra-inning 5-4 victory over Conejo Valley LL on Friday.
After a pitcher’s duel throughout, the game was tied after six innings of play to send it into extra innings.
GVSLL scored the go-ahead run in the top of the seventh when Hause came in to score on a double steal following a single by Corlett.
In the bottom of the seventh, Jase Hooper left a runner stranded in scoring position to clinch the win and a spot in the Section 1 championship.
After Hause pitched the first inning, Brennan took over on the mound and handled the bulk of the innings. He allowed zero hits during his outing before handing things off to Hooper to close it out.
Offensively, Hause drove in two runs and came in to score on an error in the top of the fourth inning. Ethan Sierra added on an RBI single in the top of the fifth to take a lead.
However, Conejo Valley LL scored the game-tying run in the bottom of the sixth. The game-winning run then rounded third on the same play, but GVSLL’s Quincy Niksto fired a strike from centerfield to Anderson behind the plate to gun down the runner and send the game into extras.
The GVSLL 11U All-Stars are Liam Anderson, Rafael Berumen, Luke Brennan, Brooks Caldwell, Dylan Corlett, Nathan Diaz, Benn Hause, Jase Hooper, Quincy Niksto, Anders Runquist, Ethan Sierra and Cade Venegas.
The team is managed by Bryan Corlett, with assistant coaches Evan Hause and Jacob Niksto.