BENICIA — Dylan Thomas would have been proud of the Davis American Junior Little Leaguers.

They did not go gentle into that good night, raging as they did against the dying of their playoff light.

After coming back through the so-called loser’s bracket to win the District 64 tournament two weeks ago, the locals had the same kind of designs on the Section 1 playoffs at Fitzgerald Field this week.

However, as Thomas said in his iconic poem, for these good men, the last wave bye was taken on Monday, falling, 13-4, to host Benicia.

“Their (tournament) effort was just fantastic,” Davis head coach Steve Perez told The Enterprise. “For the last three weeks, these guys played or practiced almost every day. This was our fifth elimination game in the two (stages) and we won four of them.”

For four innings on Monday, DALL stood tall behind the two-hit pitching of Armen Hovagimian — leading 3-1.

Davis started strong in the first inning when, with one out, Bailey Yarrow walked, Nate Curtis doubled to left-center and Chris Abel singled them both home on a 1-1 off-speed pitch.

Abel then swiped second and third, eventually scoring on an error.

Benicia fireballer Caleb Van Blake started, but got the hook with two outs in the second inning — giving way to Hudson Bishop. The trade out was not a good one for Davis as Bishop finished the game on equally blazing footing. Both pitchers could throw in the high 70s, “sometimes low 80s,” according to one Benicia coach.

“They did throw hard,” Perez allowed, adding that he was proud his batters put the ball in play and “challenged.” Perez said Benicia had “arms to spare … and they all threw hard.”

Bishop held the line as his teammates began to bang the ball.

Riley Pipken’s fielder’s choice scored Benicia’s first run in the fourth. With two on and two out, Perez replaced Hovagimian with Abel, who immediately got a popout to end the inning.

But with Hovamigian briefly re-taking the mound and Abel again coming in in the fifth inning, Benicia broke through.

Three doubles (by Van Blake, Jason Toombs and Pipken) were sandwiched in between three Davis errors. Jake Valle’s two-run single put the punctuation mark on the six-run inning.

Abel’s booming 355-foot sacrifice fly brought home Yarrow (who had walked) in the bottom of the frame. It would be Davis’ final run of their 2011 journey.

Benicia continued the downpour with three runs in each of the final two innings.

Pierce Tujo, Sunday’s winning pitcher in an exciting 4-3 victory over South Oakland, was the only local player with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3. Abel was unlucky to go 1-for-3 with his two RBIs.

In addition to his sac-bomb, Abel was robbed in the third when Benicia center fielder Valle made a look-what-I-found running catch on another long drive to the deepest part of the park.

Curtis was 1-for-3 with a run scored and Yarrow scored each of the two times he walked.

Hovagimian pitched well, going 3 1/3 innings, allowing only the two hits and two runs — one earned. He fanned one and walked four.

Abel made a goalie-like play in the second inning when Ryan Galiza’s rocket stopped dead as it bounced off the third baseman’s frame. Unfazed, Abel picked up the pellet and threw his usual dart to first, in time for the out.

Notes: William Butler missed the tournament with a broken arm, suffered in DLL Tournament of Champions (before post-season began). … Bishop picked up the win with 5 1/3 solid innings of two-hit ball. He struck out six Davis hitters. … Clean-up hitter Toomb went 3-for-5 for the winners, launching a double, a triple and a single. He scored three runs and drove in three. Bishop also scored three times, despite only one hit. … Pipken had three RBIs. … “We got what we wanted from Hovagimian: we were hoping to get a handful of quality innings from him,” Perez explained. “He hit well, fielded well. He was wonderful in this tournament.”

— Reach Bruce Gallaudet at [email protected] or (530) 747-8047. View galleries and purchase prints of Davis Little League photos at http://davisenterprise.zenfolio.com

0719JuniorW

Davis American’s Ben Harvey runs home while getting encouragement from coach Steve Perez during the locals’ Little League District 64 Juniors Tournament championship game win. On Tuesday, DALL was knocked out of the Section 1 tourney. Wayne Tilcock/Enterprise file photo

Comments

comments