There’s a new tournament here in town.
The South Coast Baseball Classic made its debut during the weekend of the 16th and 17th with eight teams from Goleta Valley South Little League, Dos Pueblos Little League and Santa Barbara PONY League competing on local fields.
And it was a big hit judging from the responses of tournament director Sam Kaiser and a hundred enthusiastic players aged 13 to 15, as well as coaches and parents. Many expressed praise for the tournament and the hope that it will be around for many seasons to come.
“This age division in our leagues is the last stop before high school baseball,” explained longtime PONY baseball advocate Kaiser, who organized the tournament with co-director Rory McCarthy from Goleta Valley Little League. “We need to be doing everything possible to keep it special, exciting and, most importantly, available to all kids who want to continue playing the game.”
Teams were split into two pools for the three-game tourney and the winners of each pool—the GVLL Twins coached by Udy Loza and the GVLL Reds coached by McCarthy—met in a championship game on Monday. In the hard-fought tourney finale, the Twins beat the Reds 7 to 4.
The game featured excellent defensive play and strong pitching by both teams. Reds ace right-hander Michael Boelter hurled six strong innings.
For the Twins, cleanup hitter Daniel McKinney knocked in four runs with two doubles and a single. Jesse Speier pitched a complete game to earn the victory and championship game MVP honors.
The champions and runner-ups each received special tournament medals after the game. In addition, GVSLL donated a large and elaborate baseball trophy to the tournament, which is intended to move with each successive tournament championship team.
Youth baseball organizations everywhere experience a significant drop-off in participation for their age 13 & up divisions and the Santa Barbara area is no exception, notes Kaiser. The region’s Little League and PONY Leagues have long and successful histories in their respective programs with large numbers of local kids playing ball from ages 6 on up to 12 years of age; however, once kids reach that 13-year old age group, the attrition rate jumps significantly.
“While we understand that teenagers will begin to consider other choices in their activities, the fact that recreational youth baseball is still available to them needs to be supported and promoted,” said Kaiser. “Baseball is still major fun and does have a lot of special events associated with it.”
