RALLY STARTER - Sydney Porter of the Grass Valley Angels heads for first base after laying down a perfect bunt in action from Saturday's District 11 Tournament of Champions. Porter's bunt and an ensuing single by Clint Bielen was followed by a three-run homer from Wyls Riley to help stake the Angels to a first inning 3-0 lead. The Angels eventually won by a 9-8 score and will play Tuesday night in a second round game at 7:30 p.m. (obfoto.com)

June 22, 2008

  Grass Valley Angels Hold off Foresthill A’s For TOC Win

A see-saw battle between the Grass Valley Angels and the Foresthill A’s swung back and forth Saturday night in a first round District 11 Little League major division Tournament of Champions game played at the Bear River Little League Complex.

And for all practical purposes, the tight first round TOC battle between the two squads went down to the wire before Angels relief pitcher Brock Grininger racked up a game-saving strikeout to preserve a thrilling 9-8 win over the A’s.

“It was a good game,” said Grass Valley Angels manager Craig Fleenor. “It was back and forth the whole night.”

The Angels looked early on that they were going to have an easy time of things as Sidney Porter’s bunt single and another base hit from Clint Bielen proceeded Wyls Riley’s line drive three-run homer that staked the Grass Valley team to a 3-0 lead.

Foresthill then came back and tied the issue at 3-3 in the second before big hits from Cody Voss and Aaron Fleenor helped the Angels regain the lead at 5-3 after three innings of play.

The Angels then extended their margin to 9-5 with a four run fourth inning which saw Rory Maloney leg it all the way around the bases after a base hit was followed by two A’s throwing errors.

However, things got tight when with two outs in the A’s fifth inning as Foresthill used a walk, an infield hit and a three-run homer to close the gap to 9-8.

Foresthill then put two runners on base in their final at-bat before Grininger recorded his key whiff of the final A’s batter to end the game.

Bielien worked the first four innings to get the pitching win for the Angels who now advance to Tuesday night’s 7:30 p.m. winner’s bracket game against the winner of Monday’s Bear River Yankees-Sierra Foothills Rangers game.

In Saturday night’s other first round TOC action, the Penn Valley Dodgers had their hitting togs on in a 19-2 drubbing of the Grass Valley A’s.