Golden Eagle Pony 10s win Super Regional, advance to Western Regional

The Golden Eagle Pony Baseball Mustang All-Star baseball team is doing its best to make the summer of 2019 one to remember. In a remarkable postseason All-Star tournament run, the Loomis 10-year-olds rallied from a 7-1 deficit last Sunday in Ceres to defeat Seaside from Monterey County, 16-12, and capture the Pony Baseball Northern California Super Regional Mustang tournament. The thrilling tournament win, where Golden Eagle posted a 4-1 record and also defeated season-long nemesis Rocklin, 7-6, now advances the Loomis squad to this weekend's Pony Baseball Western Mustang Regional tourney set for July 25–28 in Los Alamitos. "It was a long weekend in Ceres but the team, coaches and the parents are excited," said Golden Eagle manager Stephen Garcia. "We turned our last two games into a pair of marathons but it was great for the team." The Mustang 10s started their Super Regional tourney with a 9-8 win over Carmel before handing Rocklin a 7-6 walk-off setback. It was the first postseason win for the Loomis squad over its rivals after four straight setbacks. In the win over Rocklin, Golden Eagle wiped out a Rocklin threat when centerfielder Brandon Alfonso made a super diving catch and proceeded to throw out a Rocklin runner at third base to end the inning. "We have a good rivalry with Rocklin and play them a lot during the season," said Garcia. "It was nice to finally defeat them when it counted." In a Saturday night matchup of undefeated tournament teams, Golden Eagle used some outstanding relief pitching from Landon Parry to hold off Seaside, 22-17, and advance to the finals. After Seaside eliminated Rocklin, the Monterey County team edged past Golden Eagle, 14-13, to force the "if necessary" championship game. In the second game, the Loomis All-Stars trailed 7-1 before coming back to outlast their foes, 16-12, for the title. "We didn't get off to a good start in the second game but we finally settled down to play good ball," said Garcia. "Cole Bernhard really did a great job of shutting down Seaside in the late innings." Garcia noted that this was the first time during the postseason where Golden Eagle had its core group of players all together. "We have a lot of multi-sport athletes and on different weekends, sometimes soccer, football or basketball got in the way," said Garcia. "It was nice to have everyone finally together." Garcia pointed out that while the whole All-Star squad has contributed to the team's 11-4 postseason run through District, Sectional, Northeast Regional and Super Regional games, the team's pitching chores have been handled ably by Parry, Bernhard, Caiden Kime and Will Francisco. Meanwhile, at the plate, Parry, Brody Coxen, Gavin Wood and steady leadoff hitter Dylan Dietrich have all supplied key raps. "It's not just one or two players doing it all," said Garcia. "It's been a real team effort." This weekend's Western Regional will feature eight teams, including three from Southern California, Loomis, Scottsdale, Arizona, Hawaii and Utah. The winner will advance to the Pony Baseball Mustang World Series in Youngsville, Louisiana, Aug. 2–5.