SAN JOSE, Calif. – Pitching and defense got the Snow Canyon Junior League players a big win on Monday, but bad defense and a rough pitching outing cost the team in a 10-2 loss to Southern California Tuesday.
The SoCal team put up 10 runs and 10 hits and took advantage of five Snow Canyon errors en route to the Day 2 win.
The double-elimination tournament continues Wednesday, now with Snow Canyon having its back up against the wall. The Santa Clara Little League group, made up of 14-15-year-olds from southern Utah, must win the remainder of its games to capture the Junior League West Region title and move on to the Junior League World Series in Michigan.
Snow Canyon, representing the state of Utah, plays Nevada at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Nevada is also 1-1, having lost 14-3 Monday to the host team from Northern California, then winning Tuesday by a lopsided 15-1 score against the team representing Idaho.
So Cal jumped on top early in its win over Snow Canyon. As the home team, SoCal knocked four straight hits in the bottom of the first, including a two-run double by Sean Alvarez, to take an early 2-0 lead.
The Southern Cal team then piled on seven more runs in the bottom of the second. Three errors, three walks and two hit batsmen spelled doom for Snow Canyon in the huge SoCal rally. In fact, Southern California had just one hit in the huge rally that made it a 9-0 game. Two of the runs came on bases loaded walks.
Still, Snow Canyon stayed focused and managed two runs in the top of the third to make it 9-2. Tanner Truman had a sacrifice fly RBI in the rally and Jackson Ence stole home with two outs.
SoCal added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by Julian Nunez.
Snow Canyon had just three hits in the game, with Truman, Sanders Esplin and Ethan Anderson picking up the base knocks.
The Junior League Western Regional continues through Monday, Aug. 7 (the tourney takes Sunday off).
Junior League Baseball Regional
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