Petaluma Valley won the 2013 Tournament of Championship by defeating Fort Bragg 6-1 in the championship game on Thursday. The win capped a hectic week in which both teams played four games in four days.
The team from Petaluma Valley won the tournament which started on Monday with sixteen District 35 league champions. The team, which is sponsored by the Petaluma Police Office Association, qualified for the tournament by going 15-5 in the regular season, which was the best in the league and then winning the league’s post season tournament by going 3-0 in the double elimination tournament.
Overall they ended 26-6 and finished the season winning 21 of their last 22 games.
The game was the last one for teams that have been playing together since early March.
Now the teams divide up into All Star teams with three divisions all starting double elimination tournaments, which start Saturday June 29th and runs through at least Sunday July 7th. Over that first weekend there will be forty games played on eleven different fields from Ukiah to Petaluma.
The three divisions are 9-10, 10-11 and 11-12 years old and it is the beginning of what could be a lot of baseball.
The 11-12 year old is the one that Petaluma National carried to a third place finish in the 2012 Little League World Series. To get there it took twenty eight games, five tournaments and 58 days. This is where the long journey began at the District 35 tournament.
Whether there is a Petaluma National team lurking out there only time will tell. The odds on it happening again depend on your perspective. Petaluma National was the first District 35 team ever to make the Little League World Series, an event that has been going on for 66 years. That would suggest it will be a while before it happens again.
But it took the Giants over 50 years to get that first World Series Championship and it didn’t take nearly that long to win number two, so who knows.
Petaluma National will play its first game since August 26th of last year when they meet Westside. In that last game they defeated Latin American 12-4 in the third place game of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
JUNE 29TH SATURDAY SCHEDULE
11-12 YEAR OLD
11 AM
Cloverdale vs. Willits-Redwood at Petaluma Valley
Rincon Valley National vs. Rancho Cotati at Petaluma American
El Molino vs. Rincon Valley American at Santa Rosa American
Fort Bragg vs. Healdsburg at Santa Rosa American
2 PM
Mark West at Petaluma Valley
Sebastopol at Petaluma American
Westside vs. Petaluma National at Santa Rosa American
Ukiah at Santa Rosa American
10-11 YEAR OLD
11 AM
Santa Rosa vs. Mark West at Westside
El Molino vs. Cloverdale at Ukiah
Rincon Valley National vs. Petaluma Valley at Petaluma National
2 PM
Sebastopol vs. Petaluma American at Westside
Fort Bragg vs. Ukiah at Ukiah
Petaluma National, Rincon Valley American and Westside has first round bye.
9-10 YEAR OLD
11 AM
Fort Bragg vs. Cloverdale at Ukiah
Willits-Redwood vs. El Molino at Healdsburg
Santa Rosa American vs. Rincon Valley American at Petaluma National
Westside vs. Petaluma Valley at Petaluma American
2 PM
Mark West at Healdsburg
Sebastopol at Petaluma National
Rincon Valley National at Petaluma American
Ukiah has a first round bye