SAN LORENZO — The San Leandro Yankees majors baseball team got a gutty pitching performance by Ruben Ceja on Tuesday in a 6-4 win over the San Lorenzo National A’s that forced a final championship game in the District 45 Tournament of Champions.
Ceja gave up a pair of runs to the A’s in the first inning at San Lorenzo Park, then settled down the last two innings before turning the ball over to Isaias Montenegro.
Montenegro was outstanding, scattering four hits and allowing just one run (earned) with a pair of strikeouts.
Ian Dawkins led off the bottom of the first for the A’s with a triple and scored on a single by Niko Loza, who then scored on Sonny Apodaca’s double for a 2-0 A’s lead.
San Leandro came right back by scoring four runs in the second, as the Yankees took advantage of three walks. Fernando Guerrero had the big hit, ripping a single to score two runs.
San Lorenzo National scored one more run in the bottom of the second, but wouldn’t score again until the sixth.
The Yankees added a run in the fifth and again in the sixth as Diego Rojas blasted a solo homer to extend the Yankees lead to 6-3.
Chris Donahue tripled and scored on a Cameron Parker single to cut the A’s deficit to 6-4.
Montenegro settled down to retire the last two batters to end the game.
UNION CITY — Jason Illan pitched a three-hitter and went 3-for-4 with two RBI, as the Union City National Colts gave the San Leandro Padres their first loss of the TOCs to force another matchup between the same two teams.
Titus Romero went 3-for-5 with a triple and a home run, as the Colts pounded the Padres pitching for 15 hits.
SAN LORENZO — Treeview forced another game with Castro Valley American. The Treeview Indians, coming out of the losers bracket, defeated the Castro Valley Tigers 6-3 at San Lorenzo Park.
Dylan Ponce pitched the first three innings for the Indians to get the win. Treeview put the game away by scoring three times in the fourth to go up 6-1.