The Santa Barbara Pony 12U Red All-Stars captured the SoCal North Region District 2 championship with an 8-6 win over Oxnard Youth on Monday in Newbury Park.
The title victory capped off a 4-0 tournament for Santa Barbara where the offense ran wild, scoring 42 runs on 52 hits with a team batting average of .426.
They will now move on to compete in the Section 2 tournament in Newbury Park this weekend.
In the championship, Santa Barbara got on the board in the first inning with a two-run double off the bat of Adrian Zuniga.
One inning later, the team poured on three more runs courtesy of singles from Elias Rector and Carson Opdyke and a booming double by Cooper Levin.
Oxnard fought back with two runs in the third and fifth innings to cut into the deficit, but Santa Barbara bounced back with runs of their own to maintain the lead.
James Short’s RBI single in the bottom of the fifth brought the Santa Barbara advantage to 8-4, which proved to be enough runs for the win.
Defensively, Short shined behind the plate while Opdyke and Zuniga registered outfield assists in the victory.
Opdyke started the game on the mound, allowing one earned run in three innings of work. After Nick Perez tossed three strong innings of relief, Colton Bryant picked up the save in the seventh.
The Santa Barbara PONY Baseball 12U Red All-Stars are Frank Brostrom, Colton Bryant, Calvin Firestone, Cooper Levin, Ryland Montgomery, Carson Opdyke, Nick Perez, Elias Rector, James Short, August Voita, Ozzy Whitworth, Ben Woods and Adrian Zuniga.
The team is managed by Grant Brostrom with assistant coaches Greg Levin, Kyle Opdyke, and Matthew Rector.