The 2012 Santa Monica Little League Senior All Stars ran out of victories in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday night.
Their impressive run came to an end as they lost to the host team 13-3. Manhattan Beach will now advance to the Sub Division playoffs in Ontario on Saturday.
Santa Monica had advanced to the Section 4 All Star Tournament by winning four games in four days in a dramatic District 25 Tournament in Beverly Hills on July 10.
On Saturday (July 14) SMLL began the Section 4 Tournament against District 37 champs Tri Park Little League (Lawndale).
Despite a great effort, an exhausted Santa Monica team was defeated in their opening game 6-3. A rematch with Tri Park on Monday, July 16 proved to be a different story as Santa Monica made a great late comeback, led by the clutch pitching of Eli Bieber and a key hit by Tommy Gutierrez.
The seniors scored three runs in the last inning to break a 4-4 tie and go on to win 7-4. The victory eliminated Tri Park and Santa Monica advanced to the Section 4 finals versus Manhattan Beach.
Things started well for Santa Monica against District 36 Champs Manhattan Beach on Wednesday night as back-to-back RBI singles by Evan Miller and River Moore plated two first inning runs.
The bottom of the first proved to be disastrous as a couple of key errors cost Santa Monica five runs and they never recovered.
After eliminating four teams in All Star competition in nine total games, the Santa Monica magic had run out. Earlier this month on the road to the District 25 championship victory on July 10 at La Cienega Park in Beverly Hills, the team won the opener against the City of Angels 14-0 on July 1.
Despite losing the next game to Beverly Hills 3-1 on July 2, the team rebounded winning four games in four days from the elimination bracket to claim championship. This path included beating the City of Angels again 8-4 on Saturday (July 7), Beverly Hills on Sunday 16-5 (July 8), North Venice on Monday 6-1 (July 9), and North Venice again on Tuesday (July 10) to claim the championship with a score of 7-6. SMLL trailed 6-4 going into the top of the 7th, and scored three to take the lead, holding on for the win.
Denicio Gonzalez-Drake, Gary Dixon, and Evan Miller were the big bats.
The pitching ace was Alex Gironda, who threw a complete game two hitter in the Monday 6-1 victory over North Venice.
Jake Speakman was spectacular behind the plate, picking off two runners in the Tuesday final, killing NV rallies in both cases.
The 2012 Senior All-Stars were: Eli Bieber, David Carvajal, Nick Charchut, Gary Dixon, Kyle Eby, Alex Gironda, Denicio Gonzalez-Drake, Tommy Gutierrez, Javier Lopez, Jose Macias, Evan Miller, Keian Miller, Lucas Montanari, River Moore, Joey Rosenblum, Jake Speakman, and Jonah Weingarten. Manager: Dave Eby. Coaches: Michael Sigman and Steve Miller.
