Unbeaten Bear River Yankees face tough

Nevada City Braves in Jr. Div. TOC opener

Back row: Coach JR White, Mgr. Taylor Welz, Sean Marquez,Max Monroe, Josh Brown, Kevin Botsford, Michael Lucas, Cole White, Coach Frank Lucas.

Front row: Troy Runte, Zach Welz, Connor Casey, John Magni, Kyle Nelson 

Not pictured: CJ Weaver

By the luck of the draw, the District 11 Little League Tournament of Champions Junior Division will feature a blockbuster of an opening round game next Tuesday at James Field in Auburn.

In what has to be a highlight of the nine-team field’s first round games, the undefeated Bear River Yankees (21-0-1) will collide with the Nevada City Braves (17-3-10 at 7 p.m. Tue. June 26 in the tournament which features the top league teams in District 11 for 13 and 14-year-olds.

“It’s a tough draw but what can you do,’ said Braves manager Mark Casey.“We just played a 10-inning 5-5 tie with them last week so it should be interesting.”

Bear River, managed by Taylor Welz and coached by Dave Lucas, have three players who were members of last season’s Bear River Jr. Division All-Star team which advanced all the way to the finals of the Western Regionals in Portland, Oregon before being eliminated.

“We have some depth but it’s are overall balance that has been the key to the team’s success,’ said Welz. “They’ve done a good job this year.”

The Yankees feature four players who can go on the mound and get the job done. They include Michael Lucas, Cole White, Conner Casey and Zach Welz.

Other top players for the Yankees this season according to Welz are outfielders C.J. Weaver and Kevin Botsford.

The Braves, meanwhile, hope to close the deal on the Yankees this time around. In the recent tie game with the Bear River squad, the Nevada City team squandered a late 5-3 lead with a two-run error on a fly ball leading to the extra innings.

“It looked like we had them but we didn’t close the game out,” said Casey.

Casey has turned to the trio of Chris Porter, Josh Cena and John Sekerak to handle the Braves’ mound chores this season.

Also looking good for the Nevada City squad have been Cody Long and Nick LeDuc along with centerfielder and shortstop Tyler Houlihan.

Ironically, a lot of the same faces could be seeing each other again next month when the Yankees and Braves send several of their players to the All-Star level.

Yep, you guessed it: Bear River opens versus Nevada City in a Jr. Division first round All-Star game on July 2 at 7 p.m. at Condon Park in Grass Valley.

In other first round games in the Jr. TOC, the Sierra Foothills A’s from Colfax will meet the Grass Valley A’s Saturday in Auburn at 4 p.m. to kick the tourney off. That game will be followed at 7 p.m. with Foresthill meeting the Tri-City Dodgers.

On Sunday in a single game at 7 p.m., the Rocklin Orioles meet the Lincoln Reds.

The Auburn Cubs drew a first round bye and will advance to the second round after Penn Valley opted not to field a team in the tournament.

Second round games are slated for June 27, June 28 and June 29. the championship game will be played on Saturday, June 30 at James Field starting at 7 p.m.