THE BENICIA CARDINALS captued the Juniors Tournament of Champions title with a 2-0 victory over the American Canyon Wolves on Friday at Fitzgerald Field. The Cardinals are (back row from left) Nick Alfaro, coach Jaime Alfaro, Peter Templeton, James Pasual-Lum, coach David Scime, Austin Ketchum, Arian Chapman, Maurian Burell, Richard Mealey, Braden Chapman, manager Carl Rendell; (front row) Shane Martin, Enrique Cabral-Mixco, Ben Robason and Andrew Ballinger.

The top-seeded Benicia Cardinals wrapped up the Juniors Tournament of Champions title by shutting out the American Canyon Wolves, 2-0, Friday night at Fitzgerald Field.

The Cardinals, who went 3-0 in the TOC and finished with a 17-3 overall record, got great pitching from Peter Templeton in the championship game. Templeton scattered six hits, struck out seven and retired 14 of the final 16 batters he faced in recording the complete-game shutout.

The Cardinals scored single runs in the third and fifth innings and held on for the championship. The team allowed only one run in three TOC games.

“From the first practice I knew we had a great group of kids and a talented team,” said Cardinals manager Carl Rendell. “It was great how they all came together and played hard as a team. After a few miss-steps in the early games, the team caught fire and won 11 regular season games in a row through a combination of great hitting, superb base running and solid defense.”

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