The Dalles Little League 11U All Stars, pictured from left to right, starting in the back row, Trey Hodges, Luke Hoover, Jonah Ofisa, Avery Schwartz and Sterling Coburn. In the front row are, from left, William Booth, Kash Vittoria, Colton Churchill and Carson Ramsay. Not pictured: Nolan Cates, Cody Agidius, Derek Goulart and Tristan Schofield.
The Dalles Little League 11U All Stars, pictured from left to right, starting in the back row, Trey Hodges, Luke Hoover, Jonah Ofisa, Avery Schwartz and Sterling Coburn. In the front row are, from left, William Booth, Kash Vittoria, Colton Churchill and Carson Ramsay. Not pictured: Nolan Cates, Cody Agidius, Derek Goulart and Tristan Schofield.
The Dalles Little League has enjoyed a solid hold on District 5 Tournament dominance over the past few years and fielded three all-star teams this year that have visions of continuing that successful trend.
Last weekend at Kramer Field, league commissioner Nickie Hage announced the 12U, 11U and 10U squads and their coaches, and those groups will be on full display in front of their home crowd for a week of pool play and bracket contests.
On the 12U squad are, from Hattenhauer Distributing, Luciano Alvarado, Henry Begay, Cooper Cummings, Olsen Meanus and Sam Shaver.
Representing Point S Tires are James Porter and Braden VanSickle.
William Lee is the lone recipient from Papa Murphy’s Pizza.
From the city champions, Pepsi, will be Riley Brock, Nolan Donivan, Cooper Klindt and Dylan Titus.
Coaching the defending 12U district champions are Ken Brock and Ben Donivan.
On its way to its District 5 title last season, TD staged two comeback wins, faced adversity at every corner and overcame the pressure of the moment to come out on top.
The squad defeated John Day River, Jefferson County, Crook County and Redmond by a combined margin of 45-11.
The Redmond victory came in comeback fashion, in the semifinals, a 5-2 triumph.
Bend North came away with a 9-4 win in the first game of the finals to create a winner-take-all matchup.
In the championship, the Stars battled back from a 14-10 deficit with five runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the sixth inning in a 15-14 thriller.
Offensively, The Dalles scored 69 runs in six district contests and the pitching staff allowed 29 runs.
At state, however, TD was outscored, 30-25, and managed just 26 hits in 22 total innings played on its way to a 2-2 record.
The 11U group has 13 players from eight little league teams that will be skippered by Mike Cates and Randy Goulart.
Many of the names on this team were major contributors to last season’s 10U district title.
In four district games, The Dalles put up 57 runs and the pitching staff surrendered just 29 runs.
While the offense is capable of putting up runs in bunches, the main arms, Sterling Coburn, William Booth, Cody Agidius, Avery Schwartz and Nolan Cates, have all the qualities of prominent pitching staff.
After districts, TD wound up with a 2-2 record at the Oregon State Championships for fourth place honors.
Papa Murphy’s Pizza has Agidius, Booth and Cates on the roster, and Coburn and Trey Hodges make up the two athletes out of Pepsi.
Luke Hoover and Schwartz, representing Point S Tires, are returning to diamond duties, and from Oregon Equipment is the duo of Derek Goulart and Tristan Schofield.
Rounding out the roster are Jonah Ofisa (Ray Schultens), Carson Ramsay (Griffith Motors), Colton Churchill (Bohn’s Printing) and Kash Vittoria (Spooky’s Pizza).
Joshua Brackenbury (Griffith Motors) is the only player returning to a 10U roster that has 13 players, who will be coached by Corey Case.
Joining forces with Brackenbury are his Griffith Motors teammates, Hudson and Sawyer Case, and Bohn’s Printing has the largest group, with Gavin Anderson, Austin Kuehnl, Jack Thiemann and Asa Waller set to make their marks on the big stage.
Out of Ray Schultens Ford and Nissan are Sawyer Dray and Titus Porter, and Evan Ortega and Alexander De La Torre represent McDonald’s.
Dillon Dawkins (Spooky’s Pizza) and Ely Rogers (Oregon Equipment) have the final two spots on the team.
Opening ceremonies for the District 5 Tournament are slated to run at 7 p.m. on Friday, June 29 at Wahtonka with 12U and 10U games being played Saturday at Kramer Field from June 30-July 7.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.