Four tournaments every summer stand between the Long Beach PONY 14-Under All-Stars and a PONY World Series championship. After taking the District and Super-Region tournament titles in dominant fashion last month, Long Beach started the Zone tournament on Thursday with a 20-0 win over South Sound (Washington). Long Beach has won its last nine games by a combined score of 133-20.
The local All-Stars continue the winner’s bracket on Friday in West Hills against the state champions from Maui, Hawaii.
Long Beach scored nine runs in the second inning as all but one starter had a hit. Pitchers Jake Ehmann, Robert Voss and Izzy Santillan combined for the five-inning shutout. Voss struck out seven in three innings, and he gave up the only hit allowed by Long Beach.
Offensively, Long Beach finished with 12 total hits while taking advantage of nine errors. Ryan Geck, Bren Wilkinson and Voss were the only players with two hits. Voss and Ryan Skjonsby both scored three runs, and Ehmann and Santillan both had two RBIs. Long Beach also stole nine bases in the early innings.
“We have very good team speed,” coach Ken Jakemer said. “We also have exception catching and depth, tremendous defensive versatility and high level experience up the middle. I really like this team. The players are focused and committed to the team concept.”
This is the first Zone tournament for Long Beach in two years. The last time Long Beach won Zone was in 2012 when they went on to won their second World Series in five years.
Read more about the recent LB PONY tournament wins:
