Davis National fell behind by six runs at the District 64 Juniors tournament on Thursday, but a shutdown pitching performance from local reliever Kevin Blanc stopped Winters in its tracks and nearly allowed DNLL to come all the way back.

Still, the rally fell short and Davis lost, 6-4, setting up an elimination game Friday at 7 p.m. DNLL will face VNLL at William Keating Park in Vacaville.

Errors and cold bats hurt the locals in the first four innings, but Davis broke through in the bottom of the fifth. Jakob Wieking’s sacrifice fly plated Ronny Lemaster and Sebastian Anaya’s single brought home Gabe Gutierrez to make it 6-2.

With two outs and the bases loaded on the top of the sixth, Blanc took the hill — following in the footsteps of Gutierrez (eight strikeouts) and Connor Bunfill (three punchouts) — to face Winters’ cleanup hitter, who was 3-for-3 with four RBIs on the day.

The crafty Blanc got the strikeout on three pitches, and teammate Lucas Russell smacked a two-run double in the bottom half to make it 6-4. Blanc then used two strikeouts to hold Winters scoreless in the seventh, but Davis couldn’t tie the game in its final at-bat.

First baseman Ryan Bell went 2-for-3 for DNLL, while Wieking had added a pair of hits and Anaya and Leymaster stole two bases each.

DALL Juniors

An offensive explosion by Davis American resulted in a 13-1 mercy-rule victory over Vacaville Central in a five-inning Little League District 64 Juniors tournament contest on Wednesday.

Local pitcher Ryan Holgate went the distance, keeping the VCLL bats under control the whole way.

Davis, meanwhile, saw 10 different players get hits and another, Zac Bacas, was one of six DALL batters with RBIs.

Mason Scheiber was a monster, blasting two doubles in his 3-for-3 performance and knocking in a run, while Manuel Costa was 3-for-3 with three RBIs. Other big hitters for Davis included Rogrick Davis (2-for-3, 3 RBIs), Brendan Carsal (2-for-2, 2 RBIs) and Tony Munoz, who reached base three times — once on a triple — had an RBI and stole home.

Local hits also came from Matt Vinh, Holgate, Max Banuelos, Dylan Schmidt and Sebastian Costa.

DALL will play an elimination game Friday at 5:30 p.m. against an opponent to be determined at John Arlington Park in Vacaville.

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Davis National’s Ryan Bell digs in during Thursday’s D64 Junior tournament game against Winters. Bell had two hits, but the locals fell 6-4. Courtesy photo

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