After Sedona’s Little League Majors team got no-hit by Cottonwood’s best in four innings at Riverfront Park, there was doubt if the Diamondbacks could recover in time to possibly face them again in the Tournament of Champions.
That’s a big 10-4: The regular-season finish for head coach Mark Stewart’s team, which attained that record by winning its final two games, including a 19-2 thumping of head coach Carlos Godina’s Cottonwood Majors team in four innings Wednesday, May 25.
An inside-the-park home run by sixth-grader Israel McGrath was the highlight of a five-run third inning in which the Diamondbacks batted around to finish off Godina’s team, which managed to avert the home shutout in the next frame with two unearned late runs off winning pitcher Shota Yabuuchi.
“This field’s lucky for me,” said McGrath, whose walk also started a five-run second inning after he missed a 14-8 home win at Posse Grounds Park on Monday, May 23. “I always hit on this field.
“Honestly, I think this team’s the best. They’re so supportive if you do anything wrong. We all played really well, and I don’t think we could’ve done much better.”
Catcher Matthew LeBlanc also batted in two runs with a third-inning double and scored four times himself as Sedona hit Godina’s son, Isaiah, early and often.
“I like catcher,” said LeBlanc, a sixth-grader who only missed one game behind the plate this season, due to illness, after playing the position for one game last year. “When I was sick, Jeremiah [Parker] let across a couple runs. He’s pretty good.”
The rebound for the Diamondbacks followed a 10-day break. Both were necessary to restore confidence after getting no-hit by the top team in the Verde Valley Little League, head coach Jeff Lynch’s Cottonwood team, 10-0, May 13.
That game notwithstanding, LeBlanc has been hitting hard from his first game, a three for four outing against Camp Verde.
He has been doing it in support of his two seventh-grade teammates — Parker and outfielder Cody Brefeld — but also in tandem with old friends Carlos Lattanzi, who plays several positions for Stewart, and his son, Cameron, who both have played with LeBlanc since they started in T-ball at four years old.
“Cameron’s always been first baseman, I’ve always been either catcher or pitcher,” LeBlanc said. “Last year, I wanted to play catcher so bad, but I couldn’t. I was pitching.”
Lattanzi and Stewart both had RBI doubles in the fourth inning as part of a six-run fourth frame that would finish off Godina’s team. Every other player except Brefeld scored at least one run
Although Stewart was the only Diamondback not to hit safely or score in their previous game May 23, his other two amigos picked him up in the win. Lattanzi and LeBlanc each had two RBIs and scored in an eight-run first inning.
The Diamondbacks won with 10 players, despite three being out of town: Infielder Clay Christensen and outfielders Caleb Jennings and Connor Strubbe.
Stewart doubts any of them will be back by Friday, June 10, for the District 10 Tournament of Champions, a postseason for which Stewart will have his work cut out just to field a team.
“A lot of practice” is what it will take for the Diamondbacks to beat the field, McGrath said. “I think we can definitely beat at least three of the teams.”
The Diamondbacks will play the top Little League Majors teams from Bagdad, Camp Verde, Cottonwood, Prescott, Prescott Valley, Wickenburg and host Chino Valley for the right to take the first step on the road to the Little League World Series, which will begin Saturday, Aug. 20, in South Williamsport, Pa.
The Diamondbacks will be Sedona’s lone postseason representative in Chino Valley, as the top local softball and boys minors teams won’t have sufficient numbers to field teams that weekend, said Robert Downey, president of the Sedona Little League.
“We’ve got too many kids out of town,” said Downey, who ended up coaching two teams after no other volunteers stepped forward to coach a minor league team in the Village of Oak Creek. “We added a couple more teams in softball and boys minors this season, but we need to get the word out earlier. I’m looking to get some clinics started in February with the kids.”
Game times and tournament brackets will be released next week. For more information, call Downey at 202-6925.
For more photos, please see the Friday, May 27, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.
