Pitching depth carries NGLL minors to championship semis
After going through three pitchers to keep pitch counts low, Anthony Sy took the hill for the Northgate Blue Jays with two outs in the fourth inning and struck out every batter he faced to lead the Blue Jays to a 10-3 quarterfinal win over the Lathrop Orioles in the Little League District 67 Minors Tournament of Champions at Brock Elliott School.
Sy did the job at the plate as well, going 2 for 2 with a double, three runs and a walk.
The big inning for Northgate was the fifth with five runs. Julian Kelm and Sy walked and both came in on a triple by Zach Grabowsky (2 for 2, three RBI, triple, two runs). Carson Sanders singled in Grabowsky and Sanders scored on an infield single by Blake Glasgow. Josiah Reis drew a bases-loaded walk to plate Greg Adams for the last run of the frame.
Adams had a home run in a three-run fourth for Northgate.
Jayden Lopez (2 for 3, two RBI) singled in Riley Stromgren for Lathrop in the second inning and Josue Valle singled in Nazir Jones in the fourth. Valle nearly had two RBI on that play but Kelm quickly chased down Valle’s hit to right and fired the ball to Reis at first. Reis relayed the ball home to Grabowsky who made the tag on Roman Giordano trying to score.
Valle eventually scored on an error for the last Lathrop run.
The Orioles play Weston Ranch at 5:30 p.m. today in a consolation game, and Northgate faces either Spreckels Park or Mountain House in semifinal action Thursday at 5:30 p.m