Northside Royals to meet Orcutt National Braves tonight in Valley championship
Jun. 13—The Santa Maria Northside Royals will meet the Orcutt National Braves tonight to decide the major division Santa Maria Elks Valley Championship.
The game will be played at Orcutt National's homesite, May Grisham Park off of West Ranch Road in Orcutt. The opening ceremonies are scheduled for 5 p.m. and first pitch is at 5:30 p.m.
The Royals cruised to the Santa Maria City title on Saturday, beating the Westside Padres 10-0 in four innings. The Padres beat the Santa Maria Westside Dodgers 12-8 on June 8 to advance to the Santa Maria finale.
Orcutt National also cruised to the Valley title game, though in a much different fashion. Orcutt National did not play in the Orcutt championship game on Saturday after the Orcutt American representative didn't have enough players to field a team. Eight players were scheduled to be out of town for the Orcutt American club. That puts the Braves right into the Valley title game tonight.
The Orcutt National Rockies beat the Orcutt American A's to advance to the minor division championship.
The Orcutt National Braves went 16-4 during the regular season. The Royals from Northside are 20-1 and have allowed only 14 runs all season.
The Royals are managed by Aaron Rice. Multiple members of the team remain from the 9, 10 and 11-year-old All-Stars that made a deep All-Star run in 2019.
In Saturday's win over the Padres, Adrian Rice and Tyson Neal combined on a four-inning one-hitter.
Royals lead-off hitter David Cortez walked twice and scored twice. Israel Rocha had a single and a sacrifice fly. He also scored twice.
Adrian Rice went 3-for-3 with two runs. Eloy Enriquez went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored. Derek Dahl had two hits and a run.
After the Valley championship games, most players will branch off with their All-Star teams and begin District 65 play later this month. Orcutt National is set to host the District 65 12 year-old tournament.
