Santa Maria falls two wins shy of Babe Ruth World Series

Santa Maria made the regional after winning the district and state championships earlier this summer. Santa Maria lost to Torrance in its second game of the regional, won its way back to the championship round and lost Saturday.

Torrance advances to play in the Babe Ruth World Series held in Stafford, Virginia later this month. They opened the tournament with a 9-4 win over Palo Alto before beating Santa Maria 10-5 on July 26, sending Santa Maria to the elimination bracket. Torrance beat Hawaii 5-2 before beating Santa Maria 6-3 on Saturday, going 4-0 in the tournament. 

Santa Maria started the tournament with a 16-3 win over a team from Sparks, Nevada. They then lost to Torrance 10-5 and headed to the elimination bracket. There, Santa Maria beat Lone Peak, Utah, 12-4 in an elimination game on July 27, topped Palo Alto 4-0 on July 28 and then beat Hawaii 9-1 on July 29 to advance to the final. Santa Maria finished the tournament with a 4-2 record.

In Saturday's game, Santa Maria committed three errors and racked up six hits. Torrance didn't commit any errors and had seven hits.

Things started well for Santa Maria. They scored three times in the bottom of the first inning. They wouldn't score again. Torrance took the lead for good with four runs in the top of the fifth inning. They then tacked on two runs in the sixth. 

Elias Giddings went 1-for-4 from the lead-off spot for Santa Maria. Andrew Sandoval walked twice and scored once. Cesar Garcia went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run from the No. 4 spot in the order. Zachary Saucedo went 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored. Ruben Guzman had a hit and an RBI and Mario De Deios had a hit and a walk. 

Anthony Macias picked up the win for Torrance, throwing four innings while allowing five hits and three earned runs. Macias walked four and struck out none. Santa Maria's Josue Garcia, who had a stellar summer, took a hard-luck loss for his team. He pitched five innings, allowing just four hits while walking none and striking out five. He gave up six runs, though just three of those were earned.

Sandoval, a Pioneer Valley team of Garcia's, threw two the final two innings, allowing just three hits and no runs while striking out two. 

No Torrance player had multiple hits. Torrance's rally started in the fifth with a single. After a popout, Hayden Nelson was hit by a pitch to put two runners on. Jacob Narez then hit a ground ball to second, resulting in an error that allowed one run to score, cutting Santa Maria's lead to 3-1. Luc Tabata then bunted into a fielder's choice where the throw home wasn't in time to beat the run, making the score 3-2. 

Josue Garcia then induced a popout for the second out of the inning, but S. Nunez hit an infield single that Santa Maria made another error on, allowing two runs to score. Josue Garcia got a ground out to close out the inning. 

Santa Maria went down in order in the bottom of the fifth and Torrance put the game away in the sixth with a single, hit by pitch and back-to-back singles for a 5-3 lead. Narez then hit a sacrifice fly for the game's final run. 

Giddings singled to start the bottom of the seventh and moved to second on a balk. Giddings got to third on a bunt from Sandoval, but the game ended when Giddings was caught stealing home and Josue Garcia lined out to shortstop.  

Santa Maria scored all three of its runs with two outs in the bottom of the first inning. Sandoval walked and Cesar Garcia, another Pioneer Valley standout who will be a junior this spring, smacked a double to drive Sandoval in. Zachary Saucedo then hit a bloop single to score Garcia. Guzman then singled in Saucedo to make it 3-0. Guzman walked and Christopher Saucedo singled to load the bases before Narez fielded a grounder at first to end the scoring threat.

The Santa Maria team is made up of Andru Argulo, Carlos Ceja, Mario De Dios, Junior Diaz Resendez, Cesar Garcia, Josue Garcia, Elias Giddings, Ruben Guzman, Gabriel Moralez, Mateo Peinado, Andrew Sandoval, Christopher Saucedo and Zachary Saucedo. 

 There were three area teams playing in regionals this year. Santa Maria's 15s played in Cerritos and their 14s played in Hanford. Orcutt's 13-year-olds played in the Pacific Southwest Regional in Utah. Santa Maria's 15s and Orcutt's 13s both won their district and state tournaments. 

The Five Cities Babe Ruth 13-year-old team won the World Series in 2018, the most recent area team to make it to that tournament.