TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS: Athletic Edge bombs its way to another title

The Petaluma Valley Little League’s Athletic Edge bashes its way to the Tournament of Champions title.|

The Petaluma Valley Little League’s Athletic Edge bashed its way to the Tournament of Champions title last week, clubbing the Santa Rosa American Little League champion Orioles into submission, 14-1, in a game called after four innings by the 10-run mercy rule.

The game was to be played under the lights at Petaluma American’s Lucchesi Park field, but the lights hardly had time to take effect when it was over.

The victory concluded an amazing year for the youthful but powerful Athletic Edge sluggers who compiled a 32-2 record over the course of the season, winning both the City Championship and the Tournament of Champions titles in the process. The Edge completed the season on a 22-game winning streak.

Before getting to the Orioles in the championship game, the Athletic Edge eliminated El Molino, 11-1; conquered Cloverdale, 20-3; and stopped Santa Rosa Westside, 10-1.

In the championship game, Aiden Lombardi cruised to the pitching win, allowing four hits in the four innings he needed to complete the mound job.

A few of the Orioles put good swings on his sneaky fast ball, but more were over-matched as the right-hander recorded seven strikeouts.

Santa Rosa pitchers Sam Larsen and Chris Holden frustrated some of the Athletic Edge sluggers, combining for six strikeouts as they took advantage of the over aggressive Edge batters’ tendency to swing at less than sizzling pitches.

Those lapses were minor in comparison to the overall Athletic Edge slugging that produced 13 hits in four innings. That production came from up and down the lineup, with nine players contributing hits.

Two of the safeties were of the long-ball variety, with Antonio Bernardini reaching low to golf a shot over the right-center-field fence in the first inning and Jayden Julian sailing a drive into the adjacent field in the fourth.

Julian’s drive produced three runs and assured that the game would terminate in the fourth inning. It was his 29th homer of the season and tied him with Spencer Torkelson for the most dingers ever hit by a Valley League player. Torkelson set the standard during the 2012 season.

Among the hitting heroes for Athletic Edge were Lombardi with two singles and three RBIs; Julian with a triple and a walk to go with his homer; Sebastian Arenas with a double, single and two RBIs; Justin Zwiker with a triple, single and two RBIs; Sam Skinner, coming off the bench to hit two singles and score two runs; and Esai Bermudez with a double.

The Orioles got their only run in the third inning on a single by Julian Astobia, a double by Lawson and Holden’s ground out.

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