Giants

On 7/9 MB played El Segundo in the championship game. The game started off very slow for us as El Segundo was winning 4-0 after 2 innings on a few timely hits. Momentum started to build for MB as Tommy Bergjans came in to pitch and the team defense was picking up significantly. All of the coaches were preaching to the kids to hang in there as our time will come and you have to play all 6 innings as if the game is 0-0. In the bottom of the 5th with MB losing 5-0 a comeback started as the team started to hit throughout the lineup. It started with a long double by Mike Sandoval and several key hits were delivered by Garrett Fedor, Kyle Demarco and Marcus Probasco in the inning to bring us to a score of 5-3. El Segundo added a run in the 6th inning for a score of 6-3 going into our last at bat. El Segundo changed pitchers and Chris Wilhite started off with a walk and Bryan Afzali hit a sharp single to left center. Garrett Fedor hit a long double scoring Chris Wilhite for a score of 6-4. Kyle Demarco hit a hard grounder to deep 3rd in which the fielder made a strong throw for an out at 1B. Shion Yamashita hit a solid single to center field scoring Bryan from 3rd base for a 6-5 score and stole second base. With runners on 2nd and 3rd MB tried to get the tying run home and the ball just didn’t bounce our way. It was one of those games in which either team could of won and came down to the wire for a thrilling finish. In conclusion we are so proud of our kids for coming together as a team and supporting each other. We told them that their baseball career is just beginning and to look ahead for a bright future and to keep working hard and good things will happen in life. We are trying to organize this team to play in a weekend tournament (7/23) to keep the boys together as they deserve it. Chuck Demarco __________________________ On 7/7 MB played the Rolling Hills All-stars for the right to get into the Championship game versus El Segundo. Brett Collins pitched all 6 innings and MB won the game 6-2. The MB All-stars are starting to gel and becoming a team in which they all support each other and fight hard through the difficult times that occur frequently in Little League Baseball. The team had over 10 hits with several kids getting 2 or 3 hits each and Kyle Demarco added hit a long homer for his second of the tournament. Our overall team defense is not only fun to watch, but I would rank best out of all the ten teams and could possibly fair well at the next level in little league. Mike Sandoval not only hits well, but is as smooth as it comes when fielding difficult grounders and brings a strong arm from shortstop or second base. Garrett Fedor has become an elite catcher and may have found his place in baseball and I have never seen a catcher block more curve balls in the dirt than Garrett. Chuck Demarco __________________________ Last night, the MB Major All Star team defeated Lunada Bay 6-0 behind a strong pitching performance from Kyle Demarco. The game was scoreless in the bottom of the 4th, when Kyle Demarco lead off the inning with a home run to left field. The big blast woke up the MB bats and they rolled on to score 6 run in the 4th inning. Big hits came from Anthony Lombardo, Bret Collins and Michael Sandoval. Shion Yamashita and Michael Sandoval combined to pitch scoreless 5th and 6th innings. Tommy Bergjans and Kyle Farber chipped in with spectacular fielding plays. The MB Major All Stars are off until 7/6, when they will play the El Segundo team at 6:30pm. The game is at George Brett field in El Segundo. The MB Major All Stars will be one of the last 3 teams in the tournament. --Mark Macdonald Manhattan Beach played a tough Lunada Bay team last night. The score was 0-0 after 3 ½ innings when Kyle Demarco hit a home run to give MB a 1-0 lead. The MB bats started to heat up as we scored another 5 runs after that for a 6-0 lead and eventual win. Kyle Demarco pitched 4 innings of shut out ball and we followed with an inning from Shion Yamashita and Michael Sandoval to close out the game. A total team effort was displayed last night as the team played stellar defense along with strong pitching and timely hitting. Another solid catching performance by Garrett Fedor, whom is quickly earning his stripes by protecting the pitchers against pass balls and assisting with pitch selection. Tommy Bergjans had a few great plays at 3B and Kyle Farber made a beautiful catch in center field late in the game that helped MB get the win. Chuck Demarco ______________________ Tom Bergjans pitched a gutty 4 1/3 innings and held Rolling Hills to 4 runs in that duration. Shion Yamashita entered the game in the 5th w/a runner on first base with MB down in the game 4-3, and shut down Rolling Hills creating two pop ups one behind home in which, Garrett Fedor made a nice catch and the other pop up in which Kyle Demarco climbed the fence off of third base making a spectacular catch. Brett Collins gave a strong pitching performance in the 6th to close out the game. We started the top of the 5th MB was down by a run when Kyle Demarco opened up with a double to left center. MB went to the short game with expert bunting from Anthony Lombardo to tie the game. Brett Collins hit a sharp single up the middle for the go ahead run and MB went on to win the game 9-4. MB had 10 hits throughout the game versus solid pitching by Rolling Hills. Chris Wilhite made a strong throw in the 3rd inning from right field and Garrett Fedor made a beautiful sweeping tag on the runner for the out at home which significantly helped stop the RH offensive attack. Strong hitting throughout the lineup created a balanced offensive attack helping the team to the victory. We play this Wed. at 5 PM at the George Brett Field in El Segundo ( take Grand to Eucalyptus ( mk rt) to Pine ( mk rt) and go to the field on the right hand side. This was a solid team effort by the kids for the win. Chuck Demarco