Rocklin cruises to opening-round win over Mid-Placer in District 11 All-Star Tournament

Rocklin Little League's 10-12 all-stars took the lead four pitches into Wednesday night's opening-round game against Mid-Placer in the District 11 Tournament and never looked back, cruising to a 10-1 victory at McBean Park in Lincoln. Rocklin leadoff hitter Jack Johnson began the game with a single and utilized his speed and strong base running to score early. Rocklin stayed aggressive on the basepaths in the opening frame, taking a 3-0 lead after one inning. "We've got a lot of speed and we've got a lot of smart baseball players, so being aggressive was one of those things we've been working on for the last couple of weeks," Rocklin coach Josh Conklin said. Rocklin's good fortunes continued in the bottom of the first, as starting pitcher Levi Wilfong sat down Mid-Placer on five pitches. Wilfong went the distance, striking out eight and allowing four hits. "Levi threw an amazing game. The key to this was him throwing strikes in great locations," Conklin said. "He also had a stellar defense behind him. We made a bunch of plays, rolling a couple of double plays, which was huge, especially because of how short the bases are here in Little League. Him going the distance leaves us with four solid pitchers for our next game." Mid-Placer hung around and trailed only 4-1 heading into the sixth inning, but Rocklin slammed the door with six runs in the top of the sixth. Conklin said Rocklin came into the inning wanting to add insurance, but as the bats got hot and the team started stealing bases, the momentum kept rolling. The loss put Mid-Placer in a win-or-go-home situation Friday against Grass Valley. "We need these boys to come back and show up like young men and be ready to play, not like they did today," Mid-Placer coach Whitney Gonzalez said. "Inexperience hurt us today. We've got quite a few that are not used to playing at the tournament level, so this is a whole new eye-opening experience, but they got that taste and I think they'll come back with a vengeance." Gonzalez said her squad came out in Wednesday's game with emotions riding too high and let it get the best of them early. "We told the boys what we saw in the first couple innings and we've nipped that in the bud right away," Gonzalez said. "We expect to come back and give Grass Valley a good game on Friday. We have to." Rocklin is in the winners' bracket, where it will take on the winner of Thursday night's game between Nevada City and Penn Valley. Whoever Rocklin's next opponent is, the keys to success stay the same, according to Conklin. "It will take a lot of good pitching and a lot of good hitting to keep this going," Conklin said. "We probably could do a little bit better hitting gaps, but we need to put the ball in play a lot and make the other team make plays."