Both Long Beach PONY All-Star teams have made deep runs this Summer, an annual tradition for the Whaley Park boys.
The Whaley 13s All-Stars’ run came to an end in the championship of the West Zone Tournament after wins in the Regional and Super Regional Tournaments. The 13s fell to Placentia 5-2 in the Zone championship, with a trip to the PONY World Series on the line. While their bats were quiet in the championship game, the 13s were big run-scorers all Summer as they put up a 14-3 overall record.
In the Regional tournament they defeated CYB 21-1, edged local rival Heartwell 2-1 thanks to a 2-RBI hit from Noah Alves, and then defeated Placentia 3-1 and 10-4 in the championship series. That moved them on to the Super Regional, which was one of those special postseason tournaments sure to be remembered by everyone who participated.
The 13s co-hosted the Super Regional with Heartwell, and the Whaley boys opened with a dominant 13-1 win over La Jolla with Lucas Hess, Zach Reniff, and Truman Penn combining to allow just one run while striking out seven. Then the team defeated Placentia 16-2 as Alves went 3/4 with 5 RBIs.
After that was an 8-2 victory over Camarillo to set up one of the more dramatic games in recent memory for Long Beach youth baseball. Whaley and Heartwell met in the Super Regional Final last Monday with a packed crowd at Yockey Field at Whaley Park. Heartwell dominated Whaley, taking a 7-1 lead after two innings and led 9-2 after five innings. Heartwell pitcher Alex Medina threw four innings with just one run allowed, and Heartwell looked headed for a big win.
Then the lights went out. The 10pm automatic light cutoff darkened the stadium shortly after a pitch had been thrown, leading to the suspension of the game. It was resumed Tuesday afternoon, with a very different outcome than expected. An 11-run sixth inning for Whaley included a grand slam by Ethan Ceballos and put Long Beach up, with an eventual 13-9 comeback victory.
The Whaley 14s are still going and are in the Regional Tournament championship against South Bay, with the game scheduled for after print time. By making the championship, the team has already clinched a spot in this week’s Super Regional Tournament.
They opened the Summer by winning the Section Tournament, a big feat after losing their first game to Olive. They then had to win seven games in four days to claim the championship, which they did as they took down CYB, South Bay, and others before ultimately taking down the OC Expos in back-to-back championship games. In the first, they won 5-3 and in the second they won 7-2 as Nico Thiem, Lino Quintana, Eric Ramirez, and Brayton Paculba combined to give up just two runs while Paculba went 4/4 with 2 RBI at the plate.
That advanced them to this weekend’s Regional Tournament where they’ve defeated CYB, the Hurricanes, and Heartwell 5-3. In the local matchup with Heartwell, Whaley relied on ace pitcher Connor Barragan who struck out 11 in 5.1 innings of work while yielding just four hits and three runs. Heartwell ace Isaiah Heis pitched six innings and yielded just two runs while striking out nine, but a five-run seventh inning for Whaley put them in the championship against South Bay, and clinched a spot in the Super Regional.
Leonard Graham IV, Quintana, Ramirez, Jacob Gonzalez, and William Turner had the RBIs in the seventh to secure the win.
