Los Altos Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken Baseball 12u All Stars win So. California State Championship on Saturday, July 12th.  They have now earned the opportunity to travel to San Luis Obispo to compete in the Western Regional Tournament.  They will face State Champions from:  Hawaii, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Guam, Central and Northern California.  The winner of the Regional Tournament will move on to compete in the "televised" Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken World Series in Maryland on August 7th - 11th.  We are very proud of the team pictured:  Manager & Coaches Paul Semonsen, Ed Foss, Steve Castro, and Ben Goldberg along with from top L to R:  Jackson Foss, Kevin Kelley, Brendan Barrett, Hikaru Furuya, Michael Semonsen, Dewey Clark, Garrett Hing, Josh Goldberg, Sam King, Conner Steer and Tyler Steer.

Congratulations to the boys for a fantastic All Star Season.  I think it is important to highlight what they accomplished.  Their record of 4-2 and a Southern California State Championship and a 3rd place finish in the Pacific Southwest Regional Tournament does not tell the whole picture of how well they played.  In the six games the boys scored 51 runs and only allowed 13 runs.  The one run loss to Hawaii and Buchanan after leading the entire game for the most part were heartbreakers and could have gone either way but the calls and the ball did not bounce the boys' way this time.  For our boys to be the only team left standing in the end along with Buchanan and Hawaii is a testament of what a super team they are.  Also, it shows how consistent they are since they finished second last year in the 9 yr old all star tournament losing to Buchanan in the championship game.  The third base umpire after the game said, "Los Altos and  Buchanan are the two best teams in the tournament and this game should have been for the championship." In the end, the boys are a resilient bunch and I feel have grown closer as a team because of this experience.  I also believe that they have learned some great life lessons, built character, and have matured through this tournament experience.  This level of baseball has the ability to challenge these boys beyond the game itself, such as how to deal with adversity, disappointment, failure & success, in addition to developing good sportsmanship, work ethic, determination & teamwork.

I'm extremely proud of these boys and look forward to what they accomplish as a team when they are 11 & 12 years old. Thank you parents for your commitment, support and of course all of the fun and great laughs we had in Simi Valley and Bakersfield.  We should all feel fortunate for what a great group of families we have that truly love their boys and love watching them play baseball at such a high level.