YOUTH SPORTS: Campbell 9-10s Advance to District 44 Tournament of Champions Finale

With the bill of his hat pushed up and slightly to the side, pitcher Evan Williams dug his cleats into the dirt and flashed a quick smile back to his teammates in the infield.

A few pitches later, Williams recorded the final out with a sizzling fastball, sending the 9-10-year-old Campbell Little League squad to the District 44 Tournament of Champions final game.

Campbell knocked off the Serra Dodgers of the Serra-Sunnyvale Little League 5-1 to move on to Wednesday night’s championship tilt to be held at Moreland Little League in San Jose.

After a lead-off walk to open the sixth inning, Campbell head coach Garey Williams gave the ball to slick fielding shortstop Evan Williams to get the final three outs.

Niklas Cooper, the starting pitcher for Campbell who pitched two shutout innings to open the semifinal matchup on a toasty Monday evening at Santa Clara Westside Little League in Santa Clara, made a full extension stop at second base on a hard hit ground ball to record the first out in the final frame.

Williams then mowed down the last two Serra batters he faced with some hard stuff. The back-to-back strikeouts wrapped things up and left Coach Williams with a hearty grin during the postgame huddle along the first baseline.

“All year long we’ve talked about not giving up on a game,” Coach Williams said. “If we really believe, it will happen. We were patient tonight at the plate and got strong pitching from all three of our guys.”

All even at one after three innings, Campbell took the lead and never looked back in the top half of the fifth.

Three straight hitters walked to open the inning to load the bases. A fourth straight walk scored one runner, then a wild throw back to the mound allowed a second Campbell runner to sprint home.

Evan Williams capped the big three-run inning with a ringing RBI single to left field. Campbell led 4-1 after five.

“Everyone is important,” Coach Williams said. “These kids are making the most of their moment to shine. I try to preach that we have to take advantage of our opportunities. We did that today.”

Nate Austin doubled to the gap with one away in the sixth. During the next at-bat, Austin swiped two bases off a wild pitch to add a fifth and final run to the Campbell scoring tally.

Romeo Sesma pitched three innings for Campbell, striking out one and making the play of the day with his glove to end the fifth. A hard hit ball flew back towards the pitcher, who quickly knocked down the hot shot with his glove before calmly flipping the ball to first for the out.

Campbell hits field for the D-44 championship Wednesday evening at 5:30 pm in San Jose.

Full Disclosure: Campbell Patch is one of the sponsors of the Campbell Little League this year.