The 12u Santa Barbara Riptide Baseball Club rolled past the SoCal Stars to win the USSSA ?Legend? tournament in Chino Hills last weekend.
The Riptide opened the game by scoring two runs in the top of the first with back to back singles by Jack Deardorff and Derek True. Their lead did not last long though with the Stars scoring three in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead.
The Riptide is managed by John Jensen and assistant coach Danny Rivera. The team consists of: Mason Boelter, Jack Deardorff, Kevin Diaz, Scott Feldman, Frank Gamberdella, Andrew Guardino, John Givans, Jackson Hamilton, Zach Jensen, Cooper Owens, Ryan Rennick, Bryan Rivera, Dominic Roderick, Toby Spach, Derek True and Vince Vogel.
The Riptide was unable to score in the top of the second and quickly fell behind 6-2.
Story Submitted by John Jensen
With singles by Derek True and Zach Jensen to open the third inning set the table for the Riptide?s cleanup hitter Mason Boelter. Boelter doubled down the right field line scoring True and advancing Jensen to third. Scott Feldman?s groundout to second scored Jensen and moved Boelter to third who later scored on a sacrifice fly by Bryan Rivera cutting the Stars lead to 6-5. Moving to the top of the fifth the Riptide trailed 8-5. Jensen started the inning with a single to left followed by a walk by Boelter and a hit by pitch on Feldman. That brought Bryan Rivera to the plate who quickly doubled to right plating Jensen and Boelter. Jackson Hamilton then singled to left scoring Feldman and advancing Rivera to third and tied the game 8-8. After a fouled squeeze bunt attempt Toby Spach hit a laser down the right field line for a three run homer which put the Riptide ahead for good 11-8.
Bryan Rivera got the last 6 outs to earn the save and secure the championship.
The Riptide opened the tournament with a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to the SoCal Stars. Dominic Roderick pitched three solid innings allowing only 1 unearned run. Scott Feldman was 1-3 with 1 Rbi and 1 run scored for Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara was able to bounce back winning their second game 10-6 against Team Faze. The Riptide got out to an early 5-0 lead with a few walks and singles by Feldman and Spach. Santa Barbara held a 5-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 4th when Spach reached 1st on catcher?s interference followed by singles from Vince Vogel and Dominic Roderick. Derek True hit a deep fly ball over the right fielders head for a 3Rbi triple. Zach Jensen drove in True to give the Riptide a 10-3 lead. Santa Barbara went on to win the game 10-6 and earn the #4 seed heading into Sunday.
In the quarter finals the Riptide trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the 5th when Dominic Roderick was hit by a pitch followed by a single by Jack Deardorff and a walk by True to load the bases. Zach Jensen came up with a clutch single to left scoring Roderick and tying the game at three. After Rbi singles by Boelter, Feldman and Rivera the Riptide ended the inning with an 8-3 lead and never looked back from there winning 8-4 which put Santa Barbara in the semi-finals.
In the semi-finals the Riptide drew the #1 seed SoCal Bearcats. Santa Barbara wasted little time, scoring 5 runs in the top of the 1st led by a Rbi triple by Bryan Rivera. The Riptide went on to score 7 more runs in the next three innings for a 12-4 mercy rule victory. Vince Vogel was brilliant on the mound pitching 4 innings scattering 6 hits and allowing only 2 earned runs and striking out 2.
