The all-star team from the Sweetwater Valley Little League was eliminated from the Little League World Series Saturday with a 12-2 loss to its counterpart from Phenix City (Alabama) Youth Baseball Little League in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
The scheduled six-inning game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium was called in the bottom of the fourth because of the 10-run rule.
Sweetwater Valley opened the scoring in the top of the second when Sebastian Pino singled in Tempe Tran, who reached second on an error by Phenix City third baseman Easton Allen.
The Bonita-based team scored its other run in the fourth. Isaac Ramirez Aguirre singled with two outs and scored when Tran, the next batter, tripled.
In between, the Southeast Region champion scored three times in the second and four runs in the third. Phenix City then ended the game with five runs in the bottom of the fifth.
“Obviously it’s not the result we wanted,” Sweetwater Valley manger Steve Winnick said. “I told them it wasn’t our best baseball playing out here, it was actually probably our worst baseball of the entire all-star season. But the overarching theme
“I told them was we could talk about all the mistakes we made today, but the overarching theme was how proud I am of them. I’m super proud of them. To accomplishing this, to be in the top 20 in the world, to go on this run.
“(I told them), there’s so many kids in your city, in your state, in the United States, and in the world, that wanna be in your position, and you guys should be super proud of that.”
Sweetwater Valley was relegated to the United States elimination bracket in the 20-team modified double-elimination tournament with a 1-0 loss in its opener to its counterpart from the Davenport (Iowa) Northwest Little League Friday in a game when it was no-hit and ended the game on a called third strike with a full count and the bases loaded on a pitch that appeared to be outside.
Sweetwater Valley was 15-0 in its four tournaments, outscoring its opponents 114-15, entering Friday’s play. It became the first San Diego County team to qualify for the World Series since 2016 and 13th all-time when it defeated the all-star team from Hawaii’s Kawaihau Community Little League, 11- 3, in the West Region Championship Game Aug. 14 in San Bernardino.
