Petaluma Valley’s Roland Insurance TOC champs

Petaluma Valley Little League champion Roland Insurance slugged its way to the District 35 Tournament of Champions title Thursday evening, blasting Petaluma American Little League champion Petaluma Valley Athletic Club, 14-3, in the TOC finale.|

Petaluma Valley Little League champion Roland Insurance slugged its way to the District 35 Tournament of Champions title Thursday evening, blasting Petaluma American Little League champion Petaluma Valley Athletic Club, 14-3, in the TOC finale.

The game was called by the 10-run rule after Luke Svinth put an exclamation point on the Roland victory with a two-run shot over the left-field fence.

The tournament brought together regular-season champions from each participating District 35 league from Ukiah to Petaluma. When the dust had settled on the first two rounds of the single-elimination tournament, the last two teams standing were from Petaluma. They clashed for the title on the Rincon Valley Little League diamond in Santa Rosa.

The game started out to be a thriller, but turned one-sided when Roland fashioned a four-run rally in the fourth inning.

PVAC put a truck load of runners on base against starting Roland pitcher Sebastian Overman in the first three innings. The Americans left two on in the first and three more aboard in the third without managing a run.

Only in the second when Daniel Egide, Jack Lynch and Matt Terry started with consecutive singles, did they manage to light their side of the scoreboard. All three hitters scored on a wild pitch, ground out and an error,

At that point, the Americans were clinging to a 3-2 lead.

That went away in the bottom of the inning when frame-starting singles by Gino Antonini and Gavin Ochoa led to back-to-back doubles by Overton and Luke Smith. The result was three runs and a 5-3 Roland lead that would simply grow throughout the rest of the game.

Manwhile, Overman slammed the door on the Americans over the final two innings.

The real hurt for PVAC came in the fourth inning when the normally good-fielding Americans committed four errors during a nightmarish four-run Roland rally that had only two hits. The key blow was a two-run single by Ochoa.

Roland’s game-ending six-run rally in the fifth featured a monster-shot to center field by Ochoa that clanged off the scoreboard for a double, a hard shot to right by Overman and, finally, Svinth’s soaring shot that cleared the left-field fence and robbed PVAC of a final lat bat.

Brady Coon clubbed a double for the Americans, but much of their hitting attack was carried by the bottom of the order with No. 6-hitting Egide reaching base three times on two hits and a walk; No. 7-batting Jack Lynch singling and scoring a run; and No. 8-hitting Terry beating out an infield hit and scoring a run.

For the Valley, Ochoa was the big belter with three hits, including a double, three runs scored and four RBIs. Overman had two hits and scored four runs, Svinth reached base four times on a single, double, walk and his clutch home run.

On its way to the TOC title, Roland blanked Rincon Valley, 9-0, slugged Cloverdale, 15-5, and eliminated Santa Rosa, 16-8, before taking care of business against PVAC.

The American League champions battled by Ft. Bragg, 3-1; Healdsburg, 3-0, and Mark West, 25-7; before running into the Valley champions.

UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy:
  • This is a family newspaper, please use a kind and respectful tone.
  • No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. No off-topic remarks.
  • No disinformation about current events.
  • We will remove any comments — or commenters — that do not follow this commenting policy.