The entrance to the stadium was impressive, a giant ANGELS baseball boy, a sign that said Entering the Road of Champions!
I also sat in the car wondering how Devin was feeling at the time of our entrance into the park knowing that he would have been here 3 years ago and that really made me sad for him, but being the great brother that he is to Kyler, he was just excited to see Kyler play and though he said it was bitter sweet, he was okay with it all.
Here is what the San Bernadino Sun wrote about the game:
Article #1
Home sweet homeNorthridge win is 13th straight for SoCal
John Murphy, Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO - The knuckleball of Utah right-hander Austin Ovard floated like a butterfly.
But plucky Southern California refused to knuckle under, rallying from a one-run deficit to defeat the team from Snow Valley ( I thought we were Snow Canyon?) Little League, 9-1.
• Photo Gallery: 8/4: Northridge 9, Utah 1• Movie: Northridge vs. Utah
The victory by Northridge City Little League came in Friday's opener of pool play, before 1,400 on a sun-drenched afternoon that had fans scrambling to find shade.
"That kid was effective and kept us off balance,'' Northridge manager Kevin Shaw said. "We were a little impatient at first, but we finally got to him.''
Utah assistant coach Wade Ovard, Austin's father, had a different explanation.
"They stopped giving us the outside corner,'' he said. "If they had kept giving it to us, we would have been all right.
"But that's a good team we played. They're good in all phases of the game. This is a pretty high level of play here.''
The win was the 13th straight for the Southern California representative in the Western Regional. Last year, Rancho Buena Vista went undefeated en route to winning the West Region title. In 2004, Conejo Valley East Little League of Thousand Oaks also went 6-0 on its way to the West Region title.
Rancho Cucamonga's Vineyard Little League lost to
Arizona in the title game in 2003.
Utah took a 1-0 lead in the second against Northridge ace Christian Lopez. The run came across on a nicely executed double steal.
But Northridge broke through against Ovard in the third inning, scoring four runs on four hits and two walks. The big blow was a two-run single by Cody Thompson.
Northridge then added three runs in the fourth inning to end the suspense.
Northridge out-hit Utah 10-2, with Payton Milone leading the way with two hits. Eight other players had one hit each for Northridge, which plays Hawaii today at 8 p.m.
Trey Kamachi and Kyle Hoskins had Utah's only hits.
Northridge is now 13-1 in the postseason, with its only loss a 7-6 decision to Canyon Springs last week. The champs then avenged the loss, pasting Canyon Springs 11-1 in the divisional title game.
Lopez was tough on the mound for Northridge, striking out five and walking none.
"We just need to stay focused and play good baseball,'' Lopez said
Article #2
SoCal wakes up to win, 9-1
John Murphy, Staff Writer
SAN BERNARDINO -- The Snow Valley (Utah) Little League team tried to throw a curveball at Southern California.
Actually, Utah threw a lot of curves at the champs from Northridge City Little League.
• Game 3 photo gallery: 8/4: Northridge 9, Utah 1
But SoCal came alive in the third inning, scoring four runs on four hits against Utah junk-baller Austin Ovard. The big inning provided the impetus for an 9-1 Northridge win.
The key hit was a two-run single by Cody Thompson. Payton Milone and Nick Nimura also had run-scoring singles for SoCal, which overcame a 1-0 deficit.
Christian Lopez allowed just two hits during five innings for SoCal, striking out five and walking none.
SoCal meets Hawaii at 8 p.m.Saturday's in a rematch of last year's national title game, won by Hawaii.
Utah meets Nevada at 5 p.m. Sunday
While the article states that SoCal game alive in the 3rd inning, they really did not we just kind of fell asleep! It was really hard since the boys were doing so well, but our pitcher, walked a few and at this level of play, you just can't do that! The Pitcher should have been pulled after 4 innings, but didn't get pulled and we just lost our drive in a ripple affect!
After the loss, we were able to talk to Kyler for about 5 minutes since the boys were staying in dorms on the baseball complex grounds where no parents are allowed so that they can live, breathe and eat baseball and have the experience of a life time. Kyler got to start the game as the 2nd baseman since Austin who usually plays short was pitching and then the usual starter for 2nd (who really is not good at 2nd at all!) Zach moved to short giving Kyler his opportunity to start the game and bat in the 7th man spot. He was very excited about that!
At 6 p.m. they had the opening ceremonies for the whole tournament. It was impressive, except for the director who had lost his voice, who no one could really understand. The teams walking into the stadium with their state flags were an awesome site to behold!
Notice how beautiful the Utah flag looks behind the other flag?
Especially, since our boys looked so little compared to some of the other teams. But we knew that that was going to be the case even before we arrived in California!
Then we drove to our hotel in Colton California and were not impressed! Colton is this nasty little town full of ugly pavement, security guards at the front (outside) of the local grocery store (right next to the hotel,) and lots of homeless and various other scary residents. But the hotel was very nice amidst the rabble!
It has been a long day, and lots of driving times so... onto Day 2!
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