Story and Photos By Michael Oppenheimer
The Aptos Little League 12s All Stars are in the Section 5 Tournament after recovering from a tough loss toCapitola-Soquel to win the District 39 Championship in dominating fashion. Aptos earned a 10-0, 4-inning victory over Cap-Soq, highlighted by Beau Pieracci’s one-walk no-hitter.
“The last game was outstanding,” said coach Garret LaTorre. “We lost the game before, but then, the kids battled back, had a lot of energy, and really got the bats going. I can’t say more about how Beau finished it — one out from a perfect game and threw a no-hitter.”
Pitcher Tysen Espinoza
Aptos won its first three games before losing in the winners bracket final, leading to a winner-takes-all game between the two teams.
“[Capitola-Soquel’s] pitcher, Kalani Roh, just pitched a fantastic game and they played well,” LaTorre said. “But we were fired up for the next one and came back and took it to them.”
Aptos opened the Section 5 tournament, played this year at Campbell Little League’s Robert Holman Field, with a 5-1 victory over Los Gatos on Friday. Tysen Espinoza had a strong pitching performance and the team was clutch in the early innings, scoring all five runs in the first two.
Cody Pieracci and Ethan Crump led the team with two hits each. Hunter LaTorre had two RBI (runs batted in), while Wyatt Graaskamp and Owen Reilly had one each.
In game two on Sunday, Aptos rallied late, but came up one run short, falling 8-7 to Los Altos. Hunter again lead the team with two RBI, and Cody drove in another. Beau Pieracci lead the team with two hits.
Cody Pieracci watches a high pitch in Friday’s game.
Having used up their one mulligan, Aptos needed three-straight victories to win the tournament — and that’s exactly what they did.
Aptos next played a rematch against Los Gatos, overwhelming them behind a four-run first and an eight-run third inning on route to a 14-3 victory. The last two runs came in the second inning.
Beau pitched the four-inning game, giving up five hits and two earned runs, along with seven strike outs and a walk. He also was 3-for-3 and had four RBI. Tysen, Patrick Collins, and Miles Lee also had multiple hits.
Next came the rematch with Los Altos, a 4-1 victory which saw another gem from Tysen, pitching a shutout for five innings along with six strike outs. He gave up four hits and a walk before Patrick came in to close out the game. Wyatt drove in three runs, joining Miles with two hits in the game.
In the Aptos/Los Altos rubber match, the team’s pitching and batting all came together for a dominating 9-0 victory to win the Section 5 tournament. Kiran Yager and Miles combined for the one-hit shutout, with Miles getting the dramatic strike out to end the game.
Kirian started, going 2-2/3 innings and throwing five strike outs and allowing the hit and four walks. Miles then came in and pitched 3-1/3 perfect innings, including five more strike outs. The team was solid behind both pitchers, not committing any errors.
In the batters’ box, Hunter led Aptos with 3 hits, and Nolan McGee’s two RBI led the team’s balanced attack. Beau added two hits and two stolen bases.
Aptos now moves on to the California State Little League Tournament, the next round on the road to the Little League World Series.
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The All-Star teams are formed after the Little League Tournament of Champions, which gives the teams in each league a title to play for and a chance for the kids to make their last bids to make all stars.
“The season was good,” LaTorre said. “We got a good group of kids. It was a lot of fun, a lot of good games. I think our league playoffs … every game went down to the last at bat, last inning. I think four out of the six games that were played were walk-off wins. So it was a really even season this year.”
Hunter LaTorre lopes into third with a stand-up RBI Triple.
Once the TOC is over, the managers, coaches, and players of each team pick the players with a chance to make the all-star team.
There’s a lot of kids that deserve to be on the team,” LaTorre said. There’s so many [good] 12-year-olds this year.”
The selected players are then discussed by the managers and coaches and the top 15 players are ranked 1-15, with the top nine making the team once the ranking is finished.
“Then the manager could select however many he wants out of the rest of the top 15,” LaTorre said. “We went with 12 kids, so we picked three more for the final team.”
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Manager: Tim Reilly
Coaches: Garret LaTorre • Brian Pieracci
Team: Cody Pieracci • Miles Lee • Kiran Yager • Wyatt Graaskamp • Beau Pieracci • Ryan Santillan • Tysen Espinoza • Patrick Collins • Hunter LaTorre • Owen Reilly • Nolan McGee • Ethan Crump
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TOP PHOTO: Owen Reilly (00) is the center of the team’s pre-game ritual.