Photo

For a few precious moments, Drake Swezey and his Palo Alto 15-year-old Babe Ruth teammates could dream of a return trip to the World Series.

In fact, it wasn't over until the final Palo Alto batter made the final out of the last possible game of the tournament.

A group of determined all-stars played like all-stars and nearly pulled off another stunning victory.

In the end, though, Torrance claimed the revenge they desperately wanted, earning an 8-6 victory in the championship game of the Pacific Southwest Regional in Ukiah late Monday and stamped their tickets to the World Series.

Palo Alto returns home with its championship swagger in place, especially after forcing Torrance to play another game it had no intention of playing.

That extra game was required since the Palo Alto nine wasn't about to go quietly into that good night of the baseball season.

Swezey helped give the locals their opportunity. He singled in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Tucker Jorgensen with the winning run of a 5-4 win earlier Monday.

Palo Alto needed a win to force a challenge contest as Torrance won a game from the locals on Saturday. Palo Alto needed to win a game Sunday, beating Carbon (Utah), 12-6, and then needed two wins to reach the World Series.

Swezey, who drove in two runs, also pitched a complete game for the win. He saved his arm by driving in the winning run.

Jorgensen led off the seventh with a single, and advanced to second on a hit-and-run groundout by Travis McHugh. After another groundout and a walk, Swezey delivered the game winner.

B.J. Boyd also had two hits in the game and drove in a run. McHugh and Jordan Piha each added RBI hits.

Swezey was backed up by his defense, which turned two double plays in the game. Christian Lonsky also picked a runner off at first from catcher on a fake bunt.

Despite yet another valiant comeback, Palo Alto couldn't repeat its last-inning heroics.

Palo Alto was unable to complete a four-run comeback to win the challenge game for the regional title and a berth in the Babe Ruth World Series.

Palo Alto entered the seventh inning trailing 8-4, managed to score two runs and get the tying run to first base. However, a pop out ended the comeback threat and Palo Alto's postseason.

Jorgensen started for Palo Alto and pitched the first 3 1-3 innings. Matt Eastman threw the final 3 2-3 innings.

When Eastman entered in the fourth, Torrance had runners on second and third with one out. Eastman retired his first batter and would have gotten out of the inning unscathed if not for an error.

Palo Alto got great hitting from the top half of its order, each of whom had two hits. B.J. Boyd hit a double, and Travis McHugh crushed a triple. Boyd, McHugh, Jorgensen, and Kyle Zirbes each drove in a run and Dylan Cook had two RBI.

Palo Alto did get four players onto the all-Tournament team: Boyd, Swezey, Lonsky, and Jordan Piha.