A Run to Remember

Team Picture: Front Row left to right: Trevor Davis, Nick Lechner, Drew Stroup, Paul Arnett, Mikey Whittle.

Back Row: Trace Hendrickson, Jaycie Zapata, Caleb Madrano, Justin Leyba, Kaiden Pennington, Anthony Packard. Coaches shown: Bryan Arnett, Marcos Leyba, Danny Packard

(Picture taken just after their 3rd All-Star victory)

Bottom pictures:(1)Anthony Packard and Drew Stroup after one of their 5 post season victories, (2) Actual Swing for one of Justin Leyba’s 4 post season home runs

(Pictures taken by Michael Whittle)

Foresthill Divide Little League, a humble league from a small town, with only 72 baseball registrations spanning ages 5 through 12. In years past, because of the low number ofball players in our league, it is difficult to compete with the bigger surrounding leagues. For the 2014 Baseball season, FDLL was able to compile enough players for just one Majors Little League Baseball Team, which is the premier division for little league and usually consist of 11 and 12 year old boys. FDLL’s team consisted of eight 12 year olds, two 11 year olds and two 10 year olds. The 12 year olds were returning from a tough 2013 season at which they posted a 4 win and 13 loss record.

Coming into the 2014 season, the coaches and parents of the Foresthill Majors A’s were very hopeful for a competitive season. Things looked good due to the 12 year old players returning from last year’s season, a handful of which played travel/competitive ball during the fall. The Foresthill A’s inter leagued against Bear River, Penn Valley and Sierra Foothill Little Leagues. During the 2014 season they posted a very successful record with 12 wins and 6 losses.

The successful season was anchored by Foresthill’s great pitching. The pitching staff completed many games without any walks. If you have ever watched a little league game, this doesn’t happen very often. The regular season pitching staff was headed by Drew Stroup who led the team in strikeouts, innings pitched and ERA (earned runs average). Drew’s signature game was a complete game shutout, allowing only 3 hits and striking out 12 opposing batters. Assisting the pitching through the year was outstanding defense anchored by middle infielders Nick Lechner and Paul Arnett which turned multiple big league type double plays. Because of the solid defense and pitching, Foresthill was able to squeak out multiple victories by 1 or 2 runs and seemed to have a chance at winning every game.

At the end of every season, Little League puts on a Tournament of Champions. This is a single elimination tournament by district and is composed of the top 1 or 2 teams from any given league. Foresthill Majors A’s entered the tournament by default because they were the only team within their league and were slated to match up against teams that came from leagues that had up to 10 teams. The first TOC game the Foresthill A’s utilized four pitchers to barely squeak by the Nevada City Red Sox with a score of 10 to 9. The game was highlighted by a walk off RBI single in the bottom of the 6th inning by second baseman Paul Arnett which effectively sent the Red Sox home for the year. Contributing to Foresthill’s offense at 2 RBI’s each were Nick Lechner and Trevor Davis.

The game two matchup during TOC‘s ended up being against the Sierra Foothill Angels. The Angels were only 1 of the 2 teams that the Foresthill A’s had not previously beat during the regular season. Foresthill knew they can compete because one of their losses to the Angels was a 1 to 2 heart breaker. The starting pitcher for the Angels was the same pitcher that shut Foresthill down to the 1 run loss in the regular season. Foresthill exacted revenge on the Angels and their pitcher by scoring 17 runs gapping the opponent by 7 runs. Foresthill’s offense was led by Justin Leyba’s 4 for 5 performance which included 2 home runs and 4 RBI’s. Foresthill’s outstanding play was finally snuffed out the following game by the Tri-City Angels.

At the conclusion of the TOC tournament, the Foresthill A’s turned their attention to the District 11 Area 2 All-Star Tournament. Foresthill Divide Little League’s participation within this tournament was adverse due to the fact that Foresthill was going to be playing in the tournament with their regular season team. The 5 other teams consisting of Grass Valley, Penn Valley, Nevada City and Sierra Foothill all pulled their best players from their 3 or 4 respective league’s teams.

The hopes of the Foresthill coaching staff and players was to just be competitive, unfortunately the first game of the tournament the team was noticeably nervous and was out played in convincing manner losing 20 to 3 against the Grass Valley All-stars. Game 2 within the consolation bracket of the double elimination tournament, Foresthill played with more confidence and beat the Penn Valley All-Stars 9 to 6. This game was sparked with a go ahead 2 run home run by Trace Hendrickson which was his first career home run. Past that point Foresthill never looked back. Another notable player for the game was Anthony Packard with his 3 RBI’s at the plate and 6 strikeouts in his 3 2/3 innings on the mound.

The next evening, Foresthill’s game 3 was a match up against the Nevada City All-Stars. They were the reigning champion of the District 11 Area 2 All-Star Tournament. Nevada City had plenty of confidence as their All-Stars were hand selected from 3 powerful regular season teams, one of which had a record of 18-0. Foresthill hung tough in the game until the 4th inning when timely hitting on Foresthill’s part and untimely errors by Nevada City allowed Foresthill to claim the victory 7 to 3. Nevada City’s hopes were crushed when a timely 5th inning 4-6-3 double play turned by Paul Arnett and Nick Lechner. Foresthill’s rarely utilized pitcher Kaiden Pennington delivered an outstanding pitching performance by allowing 5 hits, 3 runs, struck out 6 and only walked 2. On the offensive side, Justin Leyba had 3 hits in 3 trips to the plate with a laser shot for a home run.

The following evening the tournament bracket once again brought Foresthill to face the Grass Valley All-Stars who were responsible for Foresthill being in the consolation bracket due to the opening game 20 to 3 loss. At this stage, Foresthill had confidence and played like it. Jaycie Zapata pitched about as well as you can against the high powered Grass Valley offense by only allowing 6 runs off of 6 hits. Foresthill came out swinging the bat in this game scoring 16 runs when all said and done. Offensive notables for this game was Trevor Davis’ outstanding 4 for 5 performance with 5 RBI’s and Justin Leyba’s 2 run home run which was his second in as many nights. With the 16 to 11 victory, Foresthill earned their spot in the championship game for the first time in Foresthill Divide Little League’s history, even though the matchup within the championship game resulted in a loss to the Sierra Foothill All-Stars. With that, the Foresthill All-Stars (A’s) were as excited as little leaguers can get for making their town proud and performing better than everyone expected with the big upsets to three very good All-Star teams on route to their 2nd place finish in the tournament.

Between the TOC and All-Star tournament the Foresthill A’s/All-stars posted a more than solid 5 and 3 record, batting .393 as a team and scoring 67 runs. The team hit 6 home runs (Hendrickson(1), Lechner(1), Leyba(4)), and their pitchers struck out 57 batters. Both Jaycie Zapata and Anthony Packard whiffed 13 a piece. Both Little League age 10 year olds Trevor Davis and Anthony Packard led the team in RBI’s with 11 and 12 respectively. Justin Leyba lead the team in runs, hits, home runs, walks, and a .636 batting average during the post season run. Each and every player of this team played collectively and with a lot of heart.