Sonoma County Little League teams chasing postseason title dreams

Three Sonoma County Little League baseball teams will continue their quests for championships beginning today in tournaments around Northern California.

Two of the teams - the Petaluma American Little League 9- to 11-year-olds and the 8- to 10-year-olds from Santa Rosa’s Rincon Valley - will play in season-ending double-elimination state championship tournaments over the next several days.

The Petaluma American Little League 10- to 12-year-olds have advanced to the weeklong Northern California championship, which could lead to a trip to the west regional round in San Bernardino next month and ultimately the famed Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania,

“We are very, very proud,” said Todd Bugbee, president of the Petaluma American Little League. “These kids have been together for a while. We have good coaches the whole way up. It’s been one of those years.”

One Petaluma family even has two boys playing: Ryan Rice on the 9-to-11 team and brother Jeffrey on the 10-to-12 squad.

Several people have described the older Petaluma team as special - though no one wants to publicly compare them to the 2012 Petaluma National team that advanced to the World Series and ultimately finished third in the world after beating Panama 12-4 in the consolation game.

“I won’t speak of it,” half-joked coach Blaine Clemmens.

Their quest begins at 9 a.m. today in the Northern California All-Star Tournament in Redding, where they face Turlock American.

“We have some who will play in high school, some beyond,” Clemmens said. “We have very good players, we have good depth ... They’re special in the sense that since they were 8, they’ve won almost every single postseason tournament they’ve been in.”

The coach said playing in a talent-heavy district that includes Petaluma National, ?Petaluma Valley and Santa Rosa American has prepared his team for tough competition at the higher levels.

“They’re young, but they’re confident,” he said. “They don’t think losing. They don’t think winning. They just love to play.”

During the playoff drive, the team has come back twice with late-inning heroics to continue advancing.

“Winning is what they expect,” Clemmens said. “They seem to always give themselves a shot.”

The Petaluma 9- to 11-year-olds advanced to the Northern California championship after defeating Novato South 7-2 on Wednesday.

Today they take on McKinleyville at 10 a.m. in West Sacramento. If they win, they play again Sunday and through the week until the championship game Friday.

“They’re kind of a small, scrappy team,“ said league president Bugbee, whose son plays on the team. “They’ve got a handful of really good pitchers. They have a really good spirit about them. They tend to play really good, fundamental baseball.”

The tournament is the furthest this age group can go in the postseason. The same goes for the Rincon Valley team.

Today, the Rincon Valley team plays Fair Oaks Orangevale at 1 p.m. in Palo Alto.

For parents, kids and league officials, this postseason has been particularly rewarding, given that the league lost much of its equipment in the October fires.

About 50 players lost their homes and the league itself lost three massive containers of equipment, including golf carts, mowers and screens for batting practice.

Despite the losses, this year has been one of the most successful of the past decade, league president Mark Douglas said.

“The fire came and completely surrounded our five fields. It took out about $100,000 of our equipment,” Douglas said. “But we’ve recovered from that. It’s been cool to see the success we’ve had this year despite all that. Definitely, this year, we focused the season on that, not necessarily to erase it, but put the kids into something else so they didn’t have to worry about it.”

Cal Ripken League teams in Windsor and Rohnert Park have also advanced to regional tournaments continuing this week.

If your team has qualified for a regional or statewide tournament, coaches can contact The Press Democrat at sports@pressdemocrat.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.