Photo

Chris Rea went from not playing to earning the game ball in three easy steps during the Babe Ruth District 6 14-year old all-star tournament at McKelvey Park in Mountain View last week.

Rea had two doubles and scored three runs as Palo Alto defeated host Mountain View, 11-5, in Saturday's championship game.

"This is probably the best game I've had for a while," said Rea.

His teammates are happy he chose Saturday to perform his best. After all, he didn't play in Palo Alto's first game and was a pinch hitter, singling home a run, in the second game.

Rea helped the 14-year-old's reach the Northern California State tournament for the second straight year.

In his first start of the district tournament, Rea served as the ignition for Palo Alto's offense, getting on base three times and scoring each time.

"Chris Rea did a phenomenal job," Palo Alto manager Andrew Shenk said. "He started all of our rallies."

The victory gives Palo Alto Babe Ruth its third District 6 title of the year, with the 14s joining the 13s and 15s, who won their titles earlier.

After being eliminated from last year's state tournament with a 1-2 record, Palo Alto will look to exceed last year's performance in this year's state tournament, which begins July 18 in Woodland.

After earning a tough 3-2 win over Mountain View in the opening game of the tournament, Palo Alto knew their championship foe would be tough. For much of the game, it appeared the two teams were headed for another close finish. Instead, the Palo Alto bats went off in the fifth and sixth innings to secure the District championship.

Palo Alto trailed, 4-3, into the fifth. Mountain View took the lead when Ehren Elder came in to score on an error after leading off the inning with a double.

In the bottom half of the inning, Palo Alto got to Mountain View starter Ross Slaney, touching him up for five runs. Palo Alto batted around as six of the first seven hitters reached base.

In the sixth, Palo Alto added to its 8-4 lead with three more runs, including RBI base hits by substitutes Charles Grose, Nick Wells, and Jack Witte.

Bench production helped define Palo Alto's success. Palo Alto's bench players went a combined 4-for-6 on Saturday, with three RBI.

"With this team, if someone's not hitting … I can bring someone off the bench," said Shenk. "Everyone who I brought off the bench ended up getting a hit or at least getting on base."

Palo Alto starting pitcher Jack Larson threw three innings, allowing one earned run and one hit. In fact, it took some bad luck for Larson to allow even one earned run.

In the top of the third, with one out and runners on first and third, Larson got the ground ball he needed, inducing a chopper to first baseman Clay Carey.

Carey stepped on the bag at first and fired the ball to shortstop Andrew Lim who tagged out Paul Hernandez at second to end the inning. Unfortunately for Palo Alto, moments before Hernandez was tagged out, Owen Price stepped on home, so the run counted.

That run gave Mountain View a momentary 2-1 lead as Palo Alto didn't take long to grab the lead by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. Eric Tam led off with a single and scored on a balk, while Rea drew a walk and came around to score on a double by Nick Sinchek.

In a game featuring four lead changes, Mountain View tied it at 3-all in the fourth. Nick Bondy singled to lead off the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Allen Yu. Mountain View took the lead back in fifth before Palo Alto's bats caught fire, giving Palo Alto the lead for good.

Shenk said he believes the improved hitting of this year's all-star team will get Palo Alto farther than the three-game "early exit" experienced by last year's team.

"We definitely have some better bats in our lineup this year, so I would expect us to hit better," said Shenk. "I hope to see us advance based a little more on our offense."

Are you receiving Express, our free daily e-mail edition? See a sample and sign-up for Express.