Bronco All-Stars Battle

PPBA 12U Team Hosts Pony Baseball Section Tournament at Field of Dreams

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

Last weekend on the diamonds at the Field of Dreams the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association’s Bronco 12U All-Stars joined six other teams in the double elimination Pony Section Tournament, with the two finalists continuing on to the Super Region playoffs in Whittier.

Guided by Coach Tim McCaffrey the PPBA squad fell behind 6-1 and was limited to six hits in a 16-4 defeat to Los Alamitos on Saturday morning that left the hosts in a must-win situation one hour later against Norwalk. Max Dorband had four strikeouts in three innings, Roman Hawk struck out four batters in two relief innings and Vance Clark had three quality at-bats against Los Alamitos.

Beckett Hoffman pitched five innings and James Min pitched two against Norwalk, which scored all of its runs in the first four innings, capitalizing on eight errors en route to a 9-1 victory. Palisades  finished the summer 7-7-2.    

Los Alamitos and Torrance American will represent the Section at the Super Region Tournament.

Rounding out the PPBA Bronco 12U roster were Jake McCaffrey, Gibson Pauley, Patrick Csiszar, Jett Teegardin, Teddy Grandy, Hayes Weller, Henry Lawrence and Max Miller.

“I love being the host team, we enjoy it and embrace it,” said Coach McCaffrey, who coached the Bronco Red Sox during the PPBA regular season. “This team really developed a lot. We had a great trip to Cooperstown where we grew and bonded, we won the Silver Bracket at Cheviot, we made the semis at Simi and Agoura and beat some really good teams. Defense and pitching have been our strengths and  when we make our plays we’re tough.”