Martinez Major Girls WIN TOC District 4 Championship!

On Friday the 21st the Martinez Red Sox Major girls softball team took on the Pinole/Hercules team for the Little League District 4 Tournament of Champions of Contra Costa County. The game was played at Clayton High School and hosted by the Clayton Valley Little League. Martinez was the visiting team and struck in the 1st inning when Brianna Waters led off the game with a walk. Then after a base hit bunt by Karenna Rosselli moving her over to 3rd Hanna Ruvalcaba came to bat and hit a sacrifice fly to score Waters from 3rd . At the end of the first half of the 1st inning Martinez had a 1-0 lead. Derica Boyd was the starting pitcher for Martinez and shut down Pinole/Hercules in the first with 2 strike outs to the first 2 batters. She gave up a walk to the 3rd batter in the inning but Martinez’s catcher Lauren King gunned the runner for Pinole/Hercules down as she tried to steal s 2nd ending the threat and inning. In the 2nd Martinez tacked on two more runs with a hit by Marissa Moore and an error on Pinole/Hercules with a dropped third strike allowing Mimi Vo to run to 1st base safely. Then a double steal by Vo and Moore to get into scoring position. The next batter was Sadie James who got a hit getting Moore to score and advancing Vo to third. Then while the ball was still in play got into a pickle allowing Vo to score easily while distracting Pinole/Hercules. Eventually she was tagged out. At the end of the 2nd it was 3-0 Martinez. Boyd again shut down Pinole Hercules with 3 strike outs bringing her strike out total to 5 over the 1st two innings. In the 3rd inning a home run by Ruvalcaba, a bunt and stolen base by the pitcher Boyd, and a sacrifice fly by King scored two more runs for Martinez making it a 5-0 game. The hole Pinole/Hercules seamed to dig for themselves seamed to be deep. In the bottom of the 3rd Pinole/Hercules struck scoring two runs after getting a hit and walk with two outs. With runners on 1st and 2nd and the next batter coming up Martinez just needed one more out at any base to end any scoring threat and preserve the shut out. But they could not hold Pinole/Hercules. With a ground ball to the shortstop and a throwing error the runners advanced scoring one run. Now with runners on 1st and 2rd the next batter reached base on an error to the outfield and allowed the runner from 2nd to score. Boyd finally got the next batter to strike out ending the longest inning for Martinez. After 3 innings it was 5-2 Martinez. The 4th inning went quickly for both sides with quick outs. But the 5th was Boyd’s chance to get back at least one of the runs that Martinez gave up back in the 3rd. With a blast off of her bat Boyd drove the ball to deep right center to the 210ft sign for a home run making it a 6-2 Martinez lead. Then in the bottom of the 5th again Martinez shut down Pinole/Hercules with a 1-2-3 inning. In the 6th Pinole/Hercules thought they might have an easy inning but the wheels fell off their wagon by allowing 6 runs to score with 2 outs. Hits and walks were their worst enemies allowing Martinez to bat around securing a 12-2 lead. Then in the bottom of the 6th it was again all Martinez with pitching and solid defense which secured the victory. Martinez’s pitcher Derica Boyd had a stellar game just giving up 2 hits, 0 Earned Runs, 2 walks, and 12 strike outs over 6 innings. The Martinez Red Sox Major Girls are the Little League District 4 champions of Contra Costa County. Behind their incredible manager Phil Raines and coaches Rich King and Steve Moore they are the first team in the history of the Martinez Little League Major Girls to go undefeated all season to win the championship. Even with being down two players over the season with injuries, Aleija Lewis leg and Julia Parks broken thumb, they were able to overcome adversity, jell as a team, and play like sisters to win it all. Now for the team is a weekend off until next week. They will stay together to play in the All-Stars representing Martinez and hopefully carrying them to victory in the Little League World Series later this summer if it all works out with this successful season.