Twin Cities Majors Wins District 3 Championship Over Mill Valley

Twin Cities Little League All Stars beat Mill Valley 14-4 at Joe Wagner Field in Larkspur, California, July 9, 2013.  Twin Cities clinched the District 3 Championship title with a great pitching performance from pitcher Marco Castillo, stellar defensive plays from Dean Watson and great hitting from the entire team. 

After a scoreless first inning, Twin Cities' Genki LeClair started the first rally by hitting a double in the second inning.  His hit sparked RBI's from Josh Cohen, Brennan Paganini and Evan Solter, giving Twin Cities a 4-0 lead.

Marco Castillo’s hard throwing pitches shut down Mill Valley for the first three innings and at one point, Castillo struck out four Mill Valley batters in a row. An impressive start given that Mill Valley had scored 87 runs in its previous eight All Star games.  Mill Valley had proven itself an offensive power during the All Star tournament.

At the bottom of the fourth, Mill Valley staged a come back, led by Alex Bires who hit a double to right field, putting two runs on the board for Mill Valley. Vaughn Mauterer hit a ball over the left-center wall, tying the game to 4-4, giving Mill Valley hope. 

Twin Cities came right back in the fifth inning.  After a couple of walks and single from Dean Watson, Mill Valley found itself with base loaded.  After Paganini drew a walk forcing a run in, Cohen hit a single to drive another run in. Castillo then followed with a stand up double adding two more runs, giving Castillo four RBI's for the game.  Solter and Luke Zlatunich followed with hits and a pair of RBIs. Evan Solter also finished with four RBI's for the game.  Twin Cities offensive assault in the fifth was impressive given that Mill Valley's pitchers had shutout five out of eight of its previous opponents during the All Star Tournament.

In the fifth inning when Mill Valley tried to stage another come back, Twin Cities defense led by Dean Watson shut them down. When Watson saw a ball heading towards the right field fence, he leapt and knocked the ball back into the field of play, scooped it up and gunned David Fineman down at second base, killing Mill Valley’s chances of advancing in the game.  He then followed it by a spectacular catch deep in foul territory for the second out in the inning.

 In the sixth inning, Watson again gunned down a Mill Valley player trying to stretch a single into a double by rifling the ball from the fence to second base.With the help of the great defense, Castillo was able to shutdown the Mill Valley bats the rest of the game. He finished the game with eight strikeouts and pitched a complete game. The final score was 14-4. 

With the championship win, Twin Cities advances to the Sectional Tournament, where it will face four other District Champions in a double elimination tournament.  All games will be held at Hall Memorial Park, Dixon, California, with the first game this Saturday at 10:00am.  The Sectional winner will continue playing in the hopes of reaching the Little League World Series.

Story submitted by Twin Cities Little League mom.