Roseville Phillies overpower Lakeside Brewers, 9-4

Roseville Little League's Major Phillies has some kids the size of grown men and those boys' led the team to a comfortable 9-4 win Wednesday night over the Lakeside Brewers in the District 54 Major TOC Tournament being played at Deputy Jeff Mitchell Field in El Dorado Hills. The Phillies only had nine healthy players in the lineup, but they only needed nine. Three of their players are 5-6 or taller and those players produced seven of the team's nine hits and drove in six of their nine runs. Cole Bellotti had four hits in four trips to the plate and finished with a three doubles, scored four runs and knocked in three. On top of that, he also pitched six innings, allowed three hits and struck out 11. Rhett Frost had three hits and also reached base on an error and drove in three runs. The other key player was leadoff hitter Hunter Bellotti, who had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run. "We do have some sizable guys," Roseville coach Mike Bellotti said. "But our littlest guy, Hunter, he was the leadoff hitter and he did a good job of starting the game off by getting on base so the big guys could come up and hit." Some of the smaller Brewers barely came up to some of these boys' shoulders. The Phillies scored three runs in each of the first two innings to take a 6-0 lead and made it look like the game would be shortened because of the mercy rule, but the Brewers hung tough. Hunter Bellotti started the game off with a single. Lukas Chambers then walked before Cole Bellotti knocked them both in with a double. Two batters later, Frost drove in Bellotti with a double. In the second inning, Andrew Brown was hit by a pitch and Hunter Bellotti singled for the second time. Cole Bellotti then stepped up and singled in Brown before Hunter Bellotti came in on a successful double steal. Frost then drove in his second run with a single, giving the Phillies a 6-0 lead. The Phillies tacked on single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. In the fourth, Cole Bellotti hit his second double and scored on Frost's third hit of the game. Hunter Bellotti drove in a run in the fifth inning on a ground out, while the team's final run in the sixth came when Bellotti reached base after his third double and then scored on a Lakeside error. Lakeside managed two runs in the fourth inning Eli Patmon reached base on an error and one batter later, Jackson Denton singled and came all the way around to score when the ball got by the Phillies' right fielder, scoring Patmon as well. Lakeside tallied two more runs in the sixth when Carter Hansen doubled in a pair of runs. Patmon started the game on the mound for Lakeside and threw two innings before Denton pitched the final four innings. Patmon allowed six runs yet five of the six outs he made were strikeouts. Denton allowed three runs and four hits, but struck out nine. Denton was the only Lakeside hitter who had two hits. Phillies Manager Mike Bellotti was pleased with his team's performance. "It's been a great season for these guys," Bellotti said. "They've had a lot of fun. We didn't want to go out with a loss, so our theme is 'one more', so we've got one more game on Friday and we'll get after it. "It was good the bats came around early and our pitching was good all game long." The Phillies will play the El Dorado Hills Tigers at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. "We're going to take it one game at a time," Bellotti said. "We've got a guy who's hurt and another player who is in Cooperstown right now, so we're down to nine players so we're small but mighty. Being two guys down is tough sledding, so we'll take it one game at a time and see what we can do."