North/South Oakland ended the dreams of two Benicia all-star baseball teams Wednesday night.
Benicia’s Junior League team, needing to beat unbeaten Oakland twice at Fitzgerald Field to capture the Section 1 championship, came up just short after winning the first game, 5-3, but losing the decisive nightcap, 6-4.
Benicia’s Senior League team also lost its Section 1 championship bid to North/South Oakland, falling 7-2 in the decisive title game at Albany High School.
Both North/South Oakland teams advanced to the Division 2 Tournament. The Juniors will play in Redding while the Seniors play at American River College.
Benicia’s Juniors won four games in a row in the loser’s bracket before finally getting eliminated and went 6-2 overall.
“They had high expectations and they’re disappointed they didn’t achieve it,” said Benicia Junior manager Keith Lederer. “But they never gave up. They battled all the way to the end. I can’t be upset with anything we did.”
“I really expected us to do better than this,” said Benicia Senior all-star manager Jon Wood, whose team went 3-2 in their Section 1 Tournament. “But we grew and developed a lot together and I think we’ll have a lot to contribute next year.”
Clayton Farmer and Kyle Galiza pitched brilliantly for Benicia’s Juniors in Wednesday’s first game. Farmer held Oakland scoreless through the first three innings before giving up three runs in the fourth as Oakland closed to within 4-3. Galiza threw three innings of shutout relief and earned the save.
Joey Daini scored twice for Benicia in Game 1 and Galiza drove in a much-needed insurance run in the seventh.
Game 2 was the opposite of Game 1 as Oakland took an early 4-0 lead. Base hits by Daini, Farmer, Carson Rendell and Elijah Birdsong pulled Benicia to within 4-3 in the bottom of the third, but Oakland countered with two runs in the fourth to make it 6-3. Jordan O’Connor scored for Benicia in the fourth, but Benicia didn’t score again the rest of the night.
“I though that (Oakland) would be a little more cautious and would give us an opportunity, but their pitcher kept us off balance,” Lederer said.
Benicia’s Seniors simply got out-played Wednesday as Oakland out-hit Benicia, 10-4, and scored in four of the seven innings. Oakland pitcher Rueben Drogin allowed single Benicia runs in the fourth and fifth innings and went 6 1/3 innings to get the win.
“We had the momentum with us and a good pitcher on the mound, but we got off to a slow start and (Oakland) just kept nibbling away at us.,” Wood said. “They hit better than we did and their pitching was better. It was a well-played game on both sides but they were the better team today.”
Justin Badger drove in a run with a sacrifice fly and Tom Dalby singled home a run.
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