EDH opens state tournament with 9-3 win

El Dorado Hills' 10-11-year-old All-Star baseball team opened the state tournament in Danville Saturday with a solid 9-3 win over Willow Glen. El Dorado Hills advances to the second round of the tournament tomorrow when they will play Madera American at 1 p.m. The game was tied at one until El Dorado Hills broke the game open by scoring seven runs in the bottom of the third inning. CJ Ard opened the inning with a single before Bodhi Washburn reached on an error. Aayden Whitworth then followed with a bunt single to load the bases. Logan Reichard and Jacob Trier both drew walks to push two runs across the plate. After a strikeout, JJ Filippini got the big hit of the inning with a two-run single to right field. Brady Gill hit a sacrifice fly to score another run before Matt Gabbard doubled to make it 7-1. Cole Gibbons drove in the eighth run with a single and the rout was on. El Dorado Hills managed one more run in the bottom of the fourth inning when the bottom of the order came through again by loading the bases with hits from Ard, Washburn and Whitworth before Reichard singled in Ard. El Dorado Hills scored one run in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single by Filippini. George Bergamo pitched the first 4.1 innings and allowed three runs and four hits, while striking out three. Gibbons threw the next inning and allowed two hits, but no runs before Reichard came in to get the last two outs of the game. "We rode our horses today; the boys pitched well," El Dorado Hills Manager Jason Reichard said. "Three strikeouts and zero walks; not much to complain about. Then the bottom of our lineup comes together for six hits. Seems we are spinning like a top now. Good things are ahead. We're very optimistic."