Little League 11-Year-Olds Continue to Dominate All-Star Tournament

By Julie Craft

Belmont Redwood Shores Little League (BRSLL) 11-year old all-stars on Saturday, 16-2, over the Palo Alto American Team and continued their winning streak on Sunday against Foster City, winning the game 10-6.

Managed by Rudy Lopez and coaches Peter Anderson and Kevin Lee, BRSLL had a strong start to the game in the first inning with Dominic Susa hitting a line drive for a single and then quickly stealing second and third base. Brad Shimabuku was walked and Evan Jones came in at first base to pinch run.  Sean Lee and Luke Bugbee both smacked the ball to the center field fence for singles and RBIs, followed by Taylor Douglis who also smashed the ball into center field for a double and two RBIs ending the top of the first inning 4-0. 

In the bottom of the first inning, ace pitcher Nicolas Lopez was at the mound throwing to all-star catcher Susa.    Lopez went through just five batters, striking out 2 and grounding one out at first base, quickly ending the first inning 4-0.

Zach Wong kicked off the second inning with a walk, followed by a single by Lopez. Susa stepped up to the plate in “Dominator” style crushing the ball into deep center field for a double. Shimabuku brought in an RBI followed by Lee burning the ball almost over the fence for a double and one RBI. Bugbee scored a single and loaded the bases, but the top of the inning came to an end with BRSLL leading 6-0.  

With Lopez back at the mound, Josh Fong replaced Susa as catcher and together this duo with their defensive team behind them shut down the inning in just four batters with fly balls caught by Ryan Anderson, Douglis and Shimabuku.

The top of the third inning entailed five batters up, but no score for BRSLL, with Foster City beginning to rally in the bottom of the third. With Lopez at the mound and Susa back as catcher, Foster City had two runners on base with the fourth batter bringing in an RBI.  Jones lunged into the dirt at second base to stop a shooting ground ball and with rapid fire threw it to first base while still on his knees delivering the second out while one more RBI snuck home. Lopez struck out the last batter ending the inning 6-2.

Shimabuku pounded the ball into right field leading off the fourth inning followed by Lee smacking the ball deep into center field for a double and RBI, ending the top of the fourth 7-2. In the bottom of the fourth, Lopez struck out 2 batters, Jones at 2nd base threw one runner out at first, and Foster City managed to squeeze out 3 singles and 1 RBI before the inning ended 7-3.

The highlight from the top of the fifth was Lopez sky-rocketing the ball over the fence for a picture perfect home-run. Heading into the bottom of the fifth, Susa relieved Lopez at the mound with Fong behind the dish.  Foster City had a few good hits and three RBIs before Susa struck out one batter and fly balls were caught by Lopez at first base and Bugbee in center field, ending the fifth inning, 8-6.

The BRSLL team was fired up to get some runs as they headed into the sixth inning with the score too close for comfort. Shimabuku got walked, followed by Lee who already smacked 2 to the fence this game and knew he needed air to get the ball over the fence to score the home-run he was looking….he did just that by driving the ball over the fence and bringing in two runs, giving BRSLL now a four point lead, 10-6, heading into the bottom of the sixth.

With Susa at the mound and Fong as catcher, the “Dominator” was determined to shut down the game quickly and he did so with the help of his amazing defensive team in just three batters.  

BRSLL won the game 10-6 and are heading into round three of the District all-star tournament with their next game taking place on July 5th at 5:30pm in Redwood City.     

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