Local youth baseball teams wrap up playoff runs

Young Sonoma County baseball players on Little League teams and Cal Ripken teams were busy last week competing in regional and section tournaments from Utah to Southern California.

Several teams from Sonoma County advanced all the way to the Cal Ripken Pacific Northwest regional tournament last week.

Teams from California, Nevada, Arizona and as far away as Hawaii made the trip to Utah to square off with the west’s best Cal Ripken All-Stars. Even with all the teams traveling far and wide to compete against each other, two familiar foes from Sonoma County faced off in the 12-year-olds’ semifinal game.

The 12-year-olds from Windsor and Rohnert Park battled to advance to the Cal Ripken regional championship.

It was the furthest a team from Windsor has ever advanced in the Cal Ripken baseball system. Windsor edged out Rohnert Park 12-9 to reach the championship game.

Marco Rivera, manager of the Windsor 12-year-olds, said traveling 716 miles to Beaver, Utah just to play a familiar Rohnert Park team was “Awesome, but pretty funny.”

Rivera said the Windsor and Rohnert Park players know each other well. Rivera coaches alongside Rohnert Park manager Sam Poueu during the fall with Santa Rosa Junior College coach Damon Neidlinger and said they spent a lot of time together on the road in Beaver because many of the kids on each team are friends.

Windsor later dropped the championship game to Hawaii’s Cal Ripken All-Stars, but the 12-year-olds weren’t the only local team to advance to the championship game of the Pacific Northwest tournament.

Windsor’s 11-year-olds, who had to knock out Rohnert Park’s team to even get into to the tournament, made a run all the way to the championship game before getting eliminated by Northwest Bakersfield.

Rivera said that the Windsor team’s tournament run will set the tone for Windsor’s Cal Ripken league for the future.

“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Rivera said. “There’s been a lot of success in this area, from Rohnert Park to the Prune Packers in Healdsburg and even the Santa Rosa Junior College. Now we’re picking it up.”

Windsor had five players selected for all-tournament teams.

“The talent and competition is getting better and better,” Rivera said.

Scott DeMars, who manages the Windsor 11-year-olds, thinks the performance of the Windsor teams will bring more kids to their league - not only for their success on the field, but the experience they get off the field. DeMars said players attended their first drive-in movie together, a Sacramento River Cats game and even visited Disneyland while traveling to different All- Star tournaments.

“It gives the kids promise there is a lot more out there outside of the game,” DeMars said. “The traveling alone is an amazing experience for these kids.”

Three other teams from Rohnert Park’s Cal Ripken league advanced to the Pacific Southwest regional tournament.

The 9-year-olds, led by coach Jason Olvera, started off hot and went undefeated early, but were eliminated in the semifinal game in West Valley, Utah.

Rohnert Park’s 10-year-olds, who played in Visalia, didn’t make it to the championship weekend after getting eliminated in pool play.

Petaluma National Little League’s All-Stars made it to the championship game of the California section one tournament in Fairfield, but were defeated by Tiburon in extra innings.