EL RIO 5, FOUNTAIN VALLEY 4

SoCal Senior Little League

Highlights: El Rio — Eric Lopez singled in the go-ahead run with two out in the bottom of the sixth as the 13-14-year-old all-stars won the elimination game at San Juan Capistrano. Cameron Conley had a one-out single and Tommy De La Torre doubled in the game-tying run. El Rio, the 2004 Junior League World Series runner-up, must win two more games to play in Friday's 4 p.m. championship game.

SIMI 12, CHANDLER, ARIZ. 6

PONY 13-year-old West Zone Tournament

Highlights: Simi — Blake Yuckert had a single and a double to drive in two runs in an elimination game win Tuesday night. Cody Ramer had a double and two RBIs. Nick Vigo had two hits and an RBI. Brandon Greiger, Johnny Wilson, Cole Rutherford and Tyler Bosson drove in runs. Wilson had five strikeouts in five innings and Vigo registered two strikeouts in two innings. Cole Acheronti had a homer, single and four RBIs in Monday's 7-5 elimination-win over Hawaii. In the nightcap, Simi edged Tustin 7-6 in nine innings in a game that lasted 3 hours, 15 minutes. Ramer scored the winning run on a passed ball. Colin Yelich hit a homer and single to account for three runs. Yuckert had two hits. Sean Houlihan, Reese Schmidt and Vigo combined as pitchers. Simi needs to defeat Upland twice to advance to the PONY World Series starting Friday in Chino Hills.

NEWBURY PARK FINISHES

AS REGIONAL RUNNER-UP

PONY Tournament at Walnut

The 11-12-year-old Newbury Park Bronco All-Stars finished its successful 13-2 summer campaign by placing second to host Walnut. This was only the second time in the Newbury Park league history that a team had advanced to the championship game in PONY Regional play. The hard-hitting Walnut team handed Newbury Park both of its losses in the tournament, beating Newbury Park 12-7 on Saturday to earn in spot in Sunday's championship game, and then again 7-2 on Sunday after Newbury Park had worked its way back into the championship game by defeating Torrance 5-1 behind the strong pitching performances of Austin Mason (five innings), Scotty Caligiuri and Chris Murphree. In Sunday's championship game, Walnut jumped out to a 2-0 first-inning lead on a two-run homer by Caleb Carrillo. In the bottom of the first, Newbury Park had runners at second and third with one out when Colton Waltner hit a line drive, but the Walnut pitcher lunged to snag the ball with his bare hand and throw out the Newbury Park runner trying to score from third. Starting pitcher Jack Duncan then held Walnut scoreless through the second to fifth innings. In the bottom of the fifth, Newbury Park scored two runs on hits by Waltner and Ben Okun to tie the game. Walnut then scored two runs in the sixth and three in the seventh to wrap up the championship as Newbury Park was unable to score in either frame. While disappointed in being eliminated from all-star competition, the Newbury Park players can be very proud of their accomplishments, going 5-0 to win the Las Virgenes Tournament Bronco championship, 5-0 to win the PONY Sectional Tournament in Newbury Park, and 3-2 to finish as runner-up in the Regional tournament. During the 15-game competition, Austin DeMaille (.700) led Newbury Park in batting average, but was hampered by a shoulder injury. Justin Mihalik was limited to pinch hitting because of a knee injury. Demaille and Mihalek were missed during sanction play. Other hitting leaders were Duncan (.606, three homers, 19 RBIs), Waltner (.411, three homers, 25 RBIs), Casey Hershfield (.468, 3 homers, 18 RBIs), Caligiuri (.441, one homer, 14 RBIs), Austin Mason (.429, one homer, 17 runs), Okun (five doubles, 13 RBIs, 11 runs) and Zack Brower (six doubles, seven RBIs, 10 runs). Pitching leaders for Newbury Park were Murphree (5-0, 29 innings, 33 strikeouts) and Jack Duncan (3-2, 20 2/3 innings, 35 strikeouts), and Brison Cronenbold (2-0, 20 innings, 19 strikeouts). Team member Jared Cummings entered each game in the late innings throughout each of the tournaments and provided tremendous defensive play at second base. Rick Brower was the manager. Erick Mason, Jerry Waltner and Craig Crandall were the coaches.