SALINAS VALLEY — Three South Monterey County youth baseball teams are still alive in the District 9 Little League All-Star Tournament, as of Monday.
The King City Juniors reached the semi-finals from the losers bracket, as they had suffered an 11-3 loss to Manzanita after opening the tournament with a 15-2 win over Greenfield.
King City then ran off three straight wins, beating Continental 7-0, Ferrasci 13-0 and defeated National 14-8 last Sunday. The Junior team must beat Manzanita in two straight games to win the district title, as Manzanita is undefeated.
The King City Major team played on Monday in the losers bracket with Hartnell and needed a win to continue in the tournament.
The Soledad Major team played Tuesday against undefeated Hollister at Hartnell. Soledad has an undefeated record as they began the tournament with a 10-0 win over Greenfield and a 4-2 win against Gonzales.
A win over Hollister will keep Soledad undefeated and a loss will send them to the losers bracket.
In the Soledad win over Greenfield, Dominic Valenzuela had a complete game win, while Matthew Argueta threw five innings and Alex Preciado provided relief in the late innings.
Gonzales (1-2) began play with a 5-4 comeback win over Tournament of Champions winner Atlantic at Manzanita. Kayleb King was the winning pitcher, and the winning runs were scored by Nate Correa, Diego Serrano and Jordan Torres-Perez.
Against Soledad, Mateo Zavala had three strikeouts and Andrew Lujan had three strikeouts in the late innings. Correa had two hits, while Torres-Perez and Lujan each had a hit.
In their final game of the tournament, Gonzales lost by a 5-4 score to Hartnell at Hollister. Kaleb King started at pitcher and finished with three strikeouts. Teammates Adrew Lujan and Adrian Hernandez contributed with three strikeouts apiece in the last few innings of the contest.
Diego Serrano, Hernandez and Zavala had hits, and King smashed a homerun. Gonzales played the game with just nine players.
Greenfield recovered from the opening loss to Soledad with a 1-0 win over Atlantic. Roger Ramirez got out of a bases loaded jam in the win. Greenfield (1-2) was eliminated after the loss to King City.
