“When we play our best, we can compete with any team anywhere,” asserted John Jensen, manager of the Santa Barbara Pony League Bronco All Stars at the beginning of the summer tournament season.
Jensen’s bold statement was proven true again and again as the 12-and-under squad advanced in tournament play from district to sectional to the regional level. Along the way the club upset several top-ranked teams before a hot Newbury Park team on an even hotter field (game time temperature was 102 degree) finally knocked Santa Barbara out of the high-level competition in the regional tourney.
Almost as soon as their All Star season ended, most of the boys packed their bags for Cooperstown, New York, where they competed as the Santa Barbara Riptide with teams from across the nation. The roster of the Santa Barbara Riptide club team is very similar to that of the All Stars.
Jensen and assistant coaches Richard Schroeder and Paul Morrison prepared the All Stars well for their first test. Santa Barbara was dominant in the Memorial Day Tournament on its home field at MacKenzie Park, where it defeated top teams from the Bay Area and Southern California. The All Stars continued their winning ways at practice tournaments during June in Covina, Huntington Beach and Santa Ynez.
Santa Barbara began tournament play during the Fourth of July weekend at the Santa Susana Tournament in Simi Hills with bats blazing, crushing Northview (Oxnard) 13-1 and walloping Ventura 15-1.
Highlights of the long weekend of baseball were stellar pitching performances by southpaw Dylan Tarpening and right-hander Carlos Fairbanks, both of whom pitched the tournament maximum of nine innings. Alexander Smith, Kevin Goudy, Joel Johnson, and Trevor Moropoulos also pitched well. Catchers Cole Atelian and Johnny Weger were superb behind the plate.
Fireworks from the batter’s box included multi-hit games from Fairbanks, Dalton Schroeder and John Jensen. Outfielder Christian Loza and second basemen Brice Morrison (who made a number of highlight-film plays in the field) contributed key hits and drew critical walks. Tarpening blasted three home runs, Weger hit two round-trippers and third baseman Daniel McKinney hit a grand-slam, the ball lodging high in an olive tree beyond the left field fence.
In a semi-finals match-up, Santa Barbara out-slugged Agoura 9-5. Good pitching by the host team’s hurlers cooled Santa Barbara’s bats in the tourney’s championship game and the Santa Susana All Stars came out on top 6-3. However, Santa Barbara’s second place finish in the District-level tourney allowed the team to advance to the sectionals level of tournament play.
Long-time rival Santa Ynez edged Santa Barbara 5-4 in the sectional tournament opener at the William S. Hart baseball complex in Valencia. Santa Barbara stormed back, however, rebounding big-time to crush Greenfield 15-0 and rip North Valley 11-1 in games two and three, setting up a contest between Santa Barbara and Hart, the top seed in the tourney.
Hart’s nationally known baseball program has been dominant in all divisions and age groups in youth baseball for decades. In 2007, the Hart Mustang Division (10 and under) All Star team won the national championship and youth baseball experts expected these same boys, now two years older, to become one of the top Bronco division teams in the nation.
In a game likely to be long remembered in Santa Barbara youth baseball circles, Santa Barbara upset the Hart All Stars 4-3 on Hart’s home field in extra innings.
At the end of three innings of the night game the score was tied 3-3. The game continued deadlocked, with each team making sparkling defensive plays to keep the other from scoring. Santa Barbara second baseman Brice Morrison made a spectacular over-the-shoulder catch, then whirled and fired to first to catch a Hart runner off the bag and complete a double play.
Hart pitched a trio of very-hard-throwing right-handers while Santa Barbara countered with its ace lefty Tarpening, who pitched seven strong innings. Reliever Alexander Smith held Hart scoreless in the top of the eighth.
With one out in the bottom of the eighth, lead-off hitter Fairbanks, after a nine-pitch battle, drew a walk. Dalton Schroeder followed with a single. A force-out at second left runners at the corners with two outs. Up stepped clean-up hitter McKinney (D-Mac), already 3-4 in the game. McKinney lined a 2-0 fastball up the middle to score Fairbanks.
For a few seconds, there was a kind of stunned silence in the stands, with the Hart fans in shock. Then Santa Barbara’s supporters erupted in applause and at 10 p.m., more than 12 hours after Santa Barbara took the field to play its first game of the day, the jubilant players and coaches rushed onto the field to celebrate.
“The Santa Barbara Bronco All Stars helped put Santa Barbara back on the baseball map this summer,” declared Chuck Rose, veteran umpire and longtime Santa Barbara Pony League board member.
“All of our age groups—particularly the twelve-year-olds—played well in All Star competition this season,” added Rose, the league’s All-Star Czar. “Everyone is talking about our program now.”
