Madera battled in state tournament
Manuel Guillen/The Madera Tribune
Madera Babe Ruth 14-year-old All-Star Aiden Sua swings at a pitch during the first game of the California State Babe Ruth Tournament at Mel Parker Field. He led Madera with two hits in Friday’s 8-4 loss to Santa Maria.
As the host team in the California State Babe Ruth 14-year-old All- Star tournament, the Madera All-Star team received an automatic bid this weekend at Mel Parker Field.
Madera dropped its first game of the tournament to Santa Maria on Friday, but came back to eliminate Reedley in the loser’s bracket on Saturday at Mel Parker Field.
Madera then blasted Delano, 13-3, on Sunday before losing on the back end of a back-to-back in the loser’s bracket game to Lodi, 2-1, and was bounced from the tourney.
Santa Maria 8, Madera 4
Madera opened the tournament against the eventual semifinalist of the tournament — Santa Maria — on Friday.
Madera seemed to have first game jitters by allowing foiur runs in the first inning, with three errors and two unearned runs. In all, five of Santa Maria’s runs were unearned.
Devon Reyes suffered the loss on the mound. He tossed the first three innings and allowed six runs on seven hits with a strikeout. However, three of the runs were unearned. Rafael Velasco allowed a hit over three innings with two unearned runs to go with three strikeouts.
Madera out hit Santa Maria 9-8, but left seven runners in scoring position and was hurt by five errors.
Aiden Sua banged out two hits with a double and scored a run in the No. 9 spot in the order. Tyler Zamora, Jair Alvarez, Adam Arias, Jasir Alvarez, Matthew Del Toro, Bubba Rollins and Velasco each had hits. Zamora, Jason Corona and Aria scored a run while Arias, Timmy Nino and Del Toro drove in runs.
The first four Santa Maria batters reached base in the bottom of the first inning and nine batters went to the plate before Reyes could get the final out. Santa Maria banged out three hits and advanced on two wild pitches and two stolen bases.
Reyes helped himself by picking off two runners off of third — one in the second and another in the third — and Rollins threw out a runner trying to steal second in the fourth.
Madera got back in the game with a three-run third inning, also sending nine batters to the plate. Corona started the rally with a walk and went to second on a Sua single.
Zamora singled to left to load the bases. After a strikeout, Arias flied out to left and Corona scored.
Sua then tried to steal third. The Santa Maria throw went by the third baseman and into left field to allow Sua to score while Zamora took second.
Nino drew a walk and Del Toro singled to left to drive in Zamora to cut the lead to one.
Santa Maria added two more runs in the third to answer Madera with a single, triple, single, hit batter and error for a 6-3 lead.
Madera came back with a run in the fifth. Jair Alvarez led off with a single, but he was caught stealing second. Arias then tripled to the right field corner. Nino grounded out and Arias scored to cut the lead to two.
However, Santa Maria closed out the victory with two more runs in the fifth for the 8-4 victory.
Velasco led off the sixth with a single, but a double play cleared the bases. Sua doubled to right-center, but a groundout ended the inning.
Alvarez led off the seventh by reaching on an error, but the next three batters were retired to end the game.
Madera 1, Reedley 0
Timmy Nino and Ricky Palacioz combined on a five-hit shutout to advance in the loser’s bracket with a 1-0 victory over Reedley.
Nino tossed five innings of three-hit ball. He struck out three, but walked four. Palacioz got the save with two innings of work. He allowed two hits, but not a run to eliminate Reedley who didn’t score a run in the tournament.
Through the pitcher’s dual, Madera scratched over a run in the fifth for the one-run victory.
Jair Alvarez and Rollins each had two hits. Arias, Nino and Sua each had singles. Arias scored the game-winning run on and sacrifice fly from Sebastian Millan.
A day after recording five errors, Madera didn’t commit one against Reedley. However, they left 10 runners on base.
In five innings, Nino had to battle out of trouble in four of them. He left runners at second and third with one out in the second, the bases loaded in the third, a runner at first in the fourth and another runner at first in the fifth.
Palacioz got help from a double play in the sixth and stranded a runner at second in the seventh.
Madera put the pressure on Reedley pitchers in the second, fourth and fifth innings, loading the bases in each.
Alvarez was hit by a pitch to lead off the second. After a strikeout, Rollins reached on an infield single, but Corona forced Alvarez at third. Sua drew a walk to load the bases, but a forceout ended the inning.
In the third, Alvarez led off the inning with a single up the middle. After a strikeout, Rollins singled . After another strikeout, Sua reached on an infield single. However, Madera missed out on an opportunity to score.
Sua hit a grounder off the first baseline. Both the first baseman and pitcher went to get the ball while Sua hustled up the line. The Reedley catcher followed and Sua beat the first baseman to the bag for the single and load the bases. However, home plate was left unoccupied for a moment, but Alvarez already stopped after rounding third.
Madera finally pushed over a run in the fifth. With one out, Arias singled up the middle. Nino and Alvarez singled to left to load the bases. Millan flied out to left field and Arias easily beat the throw to the plate to score the eventual game-winning run.
