Woodcreek upends Roseville behind Gray

The defending champions of the District 54 Major All-Star Tournament has been pushed to the loser's bracket. Sunday at Mann Park in Folsom, Woodcreek upset Roseville, 3-2, in the winner's bracket finale, as three teams remain in the tournament. Roseville, the defending champs, now has to beat Lakeside Monday to get another shot at Woodcreek on Tuesday or if not, Lakeside will get the chance. Woodcreek came out and scored two runs in the first inning on a pair of wild pitches/passed balls and then tacked on a third run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Julian Wells. Leading 3-0, Woodcreek didn't score any more runs and didn't need to, as starting pitcher Connor Gray got the best of Roseville when it mattered most. It started in the first inning when Roseville got their first two hitters on, and then Gray struck out the side to get out of the inning, showing a sign of things to come. He struck out the side in the second inning and then in the third, Roseville had runners on first and second before Gray got the third out handling a ground ball himself. In the fourth inning, Roseville scored one run on a single by Jude Neumann to make it 3-1, but had a chance to do more. With runners on first and second and no one out, Gray struck out three hitters in a row for the third time in four innings. Finally in the fifth inning, Gray's last, Roseville scored again to make it 3-2 on a base hit by Zander Guzzo. With the bases loaded and two outs, Gray enticed Jack Cahoon to pop out to end the threat. Gray finished with 10 strikeouts. "We have some great pitchers," Woodcreek Manager Scott Vaughan said. "We're really deep in our rotation. "Offensively, kids are stepping it up. The bottom of the lineup did a good job today of taking pitches. We're getting on base and getting over to third and we're having fun while we're doing it. This is little league baseball and we want the boys to celebrate every success. "Effort and attitude has been our biggest emphasis. We make sure we're hitting the field hard and not letting up until the game is over." Roseville will have to beat a very good Lakeside team tomorrow, for a second time in the tournament, if it wants to defend its title. "This was a great game," Roseville Manager Darryle Fukano said. "We had our shots, but we just didn't capitalize. They're a good team and we gave them too many chances to get away. "We'll meet Lakeside again tomorrow and we'll be ready for them. We'll give them a good test tomorrow and we'll see what happens after that. We're still lined up well for the tournament."