SOLEDAD — On Sunday, June 18, the Soledad Minor Giants won the Tournament of Champion Minor title, beating Hollister-American 18-6 in the finals. The Giants won the Soledad Little League championship and topped that feat by winning TOC and finishing with a 21-1 league record and 25-2 overall record.
“It was a great feeling to win the TOC,” said Giants Manager Henry Tavarez. “We have a talented team and they took it to the next level in the tournament. After a first-round bye we lost by a 4-1 score to Hollister-American and then ended up playing them to win the title. Our players stepped it up when they had to.”
After the loss to Hollister-American the Giants shutout the Ferrasci Red Sox by a 9-0 score and followed that with an 8-0 shutout of the Hartnell Dodgers. With the wins the Giants faced off against Hollister-American for the championship.
The game was tied at 6-6 until the sixth inning when the Giants exploded for 12 runs to run away from their foes.
“Everyone just started hitting the ball in our last at bat,” said Taverez. “The offense just came alive for us. Anthony Medina was the winning pitcher and received relief help from Daniel Valenzuela. Winning the TOC felt really good because this year we had a blind draft to start the league and so it was pretty fair across the board. We had many first time players and they developed into pretty good ball players. In the TOC tournament Anikan Tavarez was our leading hitter and went the whole tournament without striking out. Alfredo Aguilera was a solid leadoff batter and we had many good pitchers on the team.”
Serving as assistants on the Giants this season were Bobby Alvarado and Ernesto Felix.
Many members of the Giants are members of the Soledad Little League 10 and under All-Start team that is coached by Tavarez and his Giants staff.
On Saturday Soledad began the All-Star Tournament with a 24-8 win over Manzanita at Hollister Little League. Manuel Sanchez-Vega and Omar Lara pitched for Soledad and Sanchez Vega added some offense with a two-run homerun.
On Sunday Soledad shutout Greenfield Little League by an 11-0 score, with Anthony Medina earning the pitching win.
Yesterday Soledad played Gonzales at Ferrasci Little League and will play King City tomorrow at Ferrasci and 5:30.
