Woodcreek Junior All-Stars claim District 54 title

Woodcreek's Junior All-Star team took its first step to postseason stardom by winning the District 54 championship on Thursday night at Hangtown Little League in Placerville, beating a strong Ponderosa team, 5-3. Woodcreek won all three games they played in the tournament; opening with an 18-1 win over Hangtown before beating Folsom National in the semifinals on Monday, 10-0. Thursday's 5-3 win over Ponderosa was by far Woodcreek's closest game. "This is the most stressed I've been," Woodcreek Manager Richard Vanderzanden said. "Ponderosa is a heck of a good team. They've got a lot of bats and put the ball in play hard." Woodcreek jumped out to a 4-0 lead after four innings, but Ponderosa scored one run in the fourth and added two in the top of the sixth to make it a one-run game, 4-3. In the fourth inning, Woodcreek starter got a strikeout to end the inning with the tying run on second base. In the top of the sixth, Daniel Khuu has the game-tying run on third base when he got the last out on a flyball to the outfield. Ponderosa just couldn't get the big hit. Woodcreek added a big insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning when they loaded the bases and then scored when Anthony Puccio grounded out to drive in the game's final run. In the top of the seventh, had runners on first and second when the second out was recorded with a fly ball to right field and then Woodcreek ended the game when they caught the runner trying to advance from first to second on the fly ball. "The benefit that we have is we can throw all 13 kids out in the field in any position and know they're going to make plays and make the right plays, Vanderzanden said. "We had three pitchers come in today and all threw strikes, and then the bats showed up earlier than they did on Monday, which was nice." Woodcreek scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Khuu walked and then scored on Mason Eatchel's double. Puccio then drove in Eatchel with a ground out. Woodcreek scored two more runs in the third inning when Puccio hit a two-run single that scored Lucas Kidd and Mason Morris, who reached on walks. "The bottom of the lineup got things going once we started to slow down," Vandenzanden said. "From top to bottom we can hit and know we're moving on to sections. "This is just the first step. We have a plan as a team and we're taking it one game at a time however far we get will depend on the players. They've put in a ton of work to get here and they're not going to stop now. I have expectations of going further than any Woodcreek team has gone before and as long as they believe it and believe in themselves and each other, I think they have a shot."