East meets West in All-Star tourney

BARSTOW • Fogelsong Park in Barstow was busy this weekend, hosting the District 49 11-12 year-old All-Star Tournament.

Both the West and East Barstow teams are competing and both had a good weekend. The West Barstow All-Stars stayed in the winner’s bracket by winning their contest on Saturday, but on Sunday they faced their crosstown rivals and fell in a three-hour marathon.

On Saturday, West Barstow mercy-ruled its opponent, Sunset, 10-0.

Barstow pitcher Adrian Friend worked methodically through the Sunset line-up, notching seven strikeouts over 4.2 innings. He set down the side on strikes in order in the second, gave up just two hits, and ran into trouble only once. The bases were walked loaded with one out in the first, but a player was gunned down at the plate on a fielder’s choice for the second out, and a strikeout ended the threat. After the first, Sunset never got a runner past first base.

Offensively, Barstow was kept off the board for the first two frames, but exploded for six runs in the third. Logan Riley hit a two-RBI double, while Friend, Jorge Cisneros and Marcus Wooldridge brought home runs with singles.

Three more runs were tacked on in the fourth, highlighted by Cisneros’ two-run shot over the fence in center. Tyler Linebaugh singled, was wild-pitched to second, and scored on a Friend single.

In the fifth, Kevin Locke walked and came home on a Brandon Maune double to center, bringing in the 10th run and making it a West Barstow win.

That victory set up Sunday’s match against East Barstow. In a game that saw a combined six pitchers, 22 walks, four home runs and 20 hits over three hours, East Barstow escaped with the 15-12 win.

“It was a tough, hard battle,” said coach Tony Ortiz when it was finally over. “Back and forth, the score changed every inning, but we hung in.”

“Our defense won the game,” added coach Mo Morris.

The East made just one error, which led to a run in the first inning. The West scored two runs in the top half, as Wooldridge singled and Maune reached on an error, with both coming home on Riley’s shot up the middle.

The lead didn’t last long, as leads tended to disppear quickly throughout the match. Dylan Bradford hit a one-out double and stayed on second after a strikeout. The two-out rally was kicked off by a Jon Ramirez RBI single, plating Bradford, followed by back-to-back home runs to right by Evan Lobato and Jeremy Essex, making it 4-2.

The West came right back with five in the second. Friend led off with a single and scored on Maune’s single. Jason McCall singled, Jared Smith walked, and Maune’s single loaded the bags for Riley, who cleared them with a grand slam to center.

The East then put up four more in the bottom half of the second, taking advantage of five walks. The West got four back in the third, as Maune launched a three-run homer. The East answered with six in its half, also making the most of five walks.

The West got its final run in the fourth. Smith led off with a double, got to third on a passed ball, and scored on Linebaugh’s fly out to center. The East’s Essex in center made the catch right up against the fence, to rob Linebaugh of a hit. The fifth was a quick inning for the West, as Brandon Jackson hit a one-out single, followed by a 4-6-3 double play, Tono Ortiz to Lobato to Ramirez.

The East also tacked on a run in the fourth, on a bases-loaded walk. In the fifth, the West turned a double play of its own, with Linebaugh scooping up a ground ball and tagging second, then relaying to Riley at first.

The West found itself trailing by three in its final at-bat, and made a good bid to keep things going. They loaded up the bases with two outs, but a ground out brought the marathon to a close.

For the West, Riley had two hits, scored two runs and drove in six, while Maune had three hits, three runs scored and four RBI. Ramirez had a pair of singles and four RBI for the East, and Essex also drove in four.

“I have to give credit to the kids, it was a long game, but they kept their heads in it,” said East coach Ortiz. “No attitudes, no complaining, I’m very proud of them.”

“This game was about Barstow pride,” said Morris.

With the victory, the East stays in the winner’s bracket, and they’ll play again on Friday against an opponent yet to be determined. The West will play a loser’s bracket game on Tuesday at 5 p.m.