Golden Hill Little League Wins District 56 Championship

On Sunday, July 8th, the Golden Hill Little League 9-10 Year Old All Star team won the championship game for District 56, something that has never happened for this age group in the 52-year history of Golden Hill baseball. The team won 5 out of the 6 games played in the District 56 Tournament, clinching the championship with an exciting come-from-behind win in the bottom of the 6th inning, beating East Yorba Linda Little League by a score of 4-3. A highlight of the tournament play was Roman Arriaga pitching a perfect game against La Habra on Sunday, June 24th.

 

Following the District 56 Championship, the team moved on to play in the California Section 5 Tournament, which began on July 14th and was held at the Fullerton Sports Complex. The team won 3 of its first 4 games, including a game in which it scored 10 runs in a single inning without a single out recorded and resulted in a 12-11 victory, to put the team in the Championship game against Tustin Western. Sadly, their quest for the Section 5 championship ended on Thursday July 19th with a loss to Tustin Western, which advanced to the California Subdivisional Tournament to represent Section 5.

 

California is the mecca of baseball. The best players and teams come from California. There are so many players and teams that Little League has actually broken up the state into Southern California and Northern California.

 

In Southern California, the State Tournament started with more than 500 teams. When the Golden Hill 9-10 year old team won District 56, it moved into the top 40 teams who competed in Sections 1-10 of Southern California. When the team played in the Section 5 Championship game, it was playing as one of the top 20 teams in Southern California. Since the team forced a playoff game against Tustin Western for the Championship, their ranking increased to somewhere in the top 11 to 15 teams in Southern California.

 

The team was led by Manager Brian Hogan and Coaches Mark Ballin and Steve Macchia. The players are Evan Adolphus, Roman Arriaga, Blake Ballin, Nathan Blocher, Owen Borsari, Nathan Chong, Allen Franco, John Hogan, Eugene Jeon, Enoch Kim, Mark McCabe, Sam Pace and Brayden Smoot.