The Los Altos 9s All-Stars won their second tournament of the Summer last weekend, claiming the championship at the Pismo Beach Ride the Wave Tournament by coming out on top of a bracket of 18 teams, mostly from Central California.
The Los Altos kids went 4-0-1 at the tournament. They won their first game on a throw home from centerfield by Jesse Tolen, with catcher Jack Murphy fielding and slapping down the tag to get the game’s final out on what would have been the tying run. After an 8-8 tie in their second pool play game they won the first two bracket play games by mercy rule with a combined score of 32-6, then defeated the Monterey South County Titans 11-10 in the championship game, with Nolan Butts singling in Cooper Kilkenny for the go-ahead run.
Tolen was named Tournament MVP, with Gannon Wells leading in batting average at .615, followed by Zeke Mejia at .545, and Evan Gallo, Carson Prince, and Vinny Guardabascio at .500. Murphy played catcher in all five games and caught four baserunners stealing, with two tags at the plate.
The team is managed by Mike Kilkenny with assistants Mark Murphy, Manny Mejia, and Mike Gallo. The players are Nolan Butts, Jesse Tolen, Zeke Mejia, Evan Gallo, Cooper Kilkenny, Kaden Breuklander, Mateo Valadez, Jack Murphy, Oliver O’Connor, Vinny Guardabascio, Gannon Wells, Lucas Miller, and Carson Prince.
