The Hollister Junior All-Stars pose with their District 9 championship banner Sunday at Muni Stadium in Salinas. Hollister came back in the last inning to eventually beat Hartnell, 13-11.
The Hollister Junior All-Stars needed the baseball equivalent of a Hail Mary Sunday to defeat Hartnell in the District 9 Championship, and it was Craig Slibsager who helped deliver the perfect pass.
Trailing by a touchdown and clinging to their final out, Hollister scored six times in the top of the seventh inning Sunday against Hartnell, then plated two more in the ninth to steal a 13-11 victory and claim the Distirct 9 title at Muni Stadium in Salinas.
Slibsager's two-run single to right field in the seventh tied the game at 11-all, while his single to left field two innings later moved the speedy Ryan Jacobs to third base. Jacobs scored after a fielder's choice groundout from Richie Beltran, and Tyler Pina's RBI double later in the inning scored Slibsager, providing Hollister with a comfortable cushion heading to the home half of the ninth.
"I thought it might have been caught," said Slibsager of his game-tying single in the seventh, which was trapped by Hartnell's right fielder. "Then I noticed he didn't catch it and I saw him throw it home. I saw Dylan (Ito) was safe and it was excitement."
Slibsager was on the mound in the ninth and got a favored Hartnell team to go in order, including striking out the last two batters.
"We felt we had the momentum," said Slibsager, who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs. "We were just excited. We just wanted to score some more runs and close it out."
Slibsager came on in relief in the sixth and pitched four scoreless innings after Hartnell scored in each previous inning to build an 11-5 lead.
As the final score showed, though, the scoring was not done by any means.
"We asked the kids to fight," manager David Slibsager said. "As coaches, we really expected to get three or four runs (in the seventh inning) and build momentum for tomorrow, but it just snowballed. Momentum is huge in sports."
Had Hollister lost, the two teams would have returned to Muni Stadium in Salinas on Monday night for a winner-take-all match-up, as Hollister was undefeated heading into the double-elimination tournament championship.
Instead Hollister, which went 4-0 and outscored their opponents by a 54-26 margin in district, advances to the sectional tournament. They'll face the champion of District 39 on Saturday in Milpitas. District 39 includes areas of Santa Cruz and Gilroy.
Hartnell, considered the favorite after their lone regular season team compiled a perfect 18-0 record, lost to Atlantic in the quarterfinals, 11-10. They battled their way back through the Elimination Bracket, however, where they rifled off three straight wins to reach the championship on Sunday.
"[Hartnell] hit the ball well today and we didn't pitch out best today," Slibsager said, "but the kids didn't quit."
Down 11-5, Hollister drew two walks that knocked in runs and stole home twice after wild pitches before Slibsager connected on his two-run single off Hartnell's Cameron Neff.
Neff started the game for Hartnell, throwing four innings of three-hit baseball, and gave his team control of the contest early on. He re-entered the game in the seventh to close the door on Hollister, but the momentum had apparently already swung in Hollister's favor.
"He's the best pitcher we've faced so far, no doubt about it," David Slibsager said.
"But in All-Stars, we've got a very huge group of young boys who just hit the ball well."
Hollister grabbed an early lead in the top half of the first when Beltran hit a high double over the left fielder's head and scored pinch-runner Sean Corral (running for Slibsager) from first base.
It would be the last time Hollister led until the ninth inning, however, as Hartnell came right back with three of their own in the bottom frame. Hollister followed with two runs in the second to tie the game at 3-all, including an RBI single from Jacobs that scored Michael Breen, but Hartnell went on to score six runs over the next three innings.
Hollister began to chip away in the fifth, when Pina's RBI single plated Brian Becerra, and again in the sixth, when Jacobs was nearly picked off at third base but wound up scoring Hollister's fifth run of the game.
Although Hollister stranded 10 runners on base, eight of whom were in scoring position, 11 of Hollister's 13 runs Sunday came with two outs.
Ryan Jacobs' go-ahead run in the ninth inning was just one of the two runs Hollister scored with less than two outs. Known for his speed, Jacobs, who was 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and a pair of runs scored, reached first base in the ninth after a hit-by-pitch.
Jacobs said afterward he knew he'd score the eventual game-winning run once he reached first.
"[On Monday], we would have came back with a fire, but today, we wanted to be able to go undefeated," Jacobs said. "We never give up. We never give up."
HOLL 120 011 602 - 13 11 3
HART 321 230 000 - 11 15 2
2008 Sectional Tournament
The Hollister Junior All-Stars qualified for the sectional tournament with their win Sunday.
Hollister will play Saturday, July 12 at 1 p.m.
Representing District 9, Hollister will play the champion of District 39, which represents areas of Santa Cruz and Gilroy.
Game will be at Milpitas North Little League, located at Milmont Park on Milmont and Jurgen streets in Milpitas.
Andrew Matheson Andrew Matheson is a sports writer for South Valley Newspapers. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 334 or at amatheson@svnewspapers.com.
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