Folsom American, behind MacLeod, reaches championship game in 9-10 All-Star tournament

You often hear in football that defense wins championships. Well, the case can be made that defense is pretty important in baseball too. You give a team extra outs and they're going to hurt you. Folsom American's 9-10-year-old All-Stars received a great performance from starting pitcher Reed MacLeod Monday night, and the defense was just as good, as the Folsom American All-Stars earned a tough, 3-1 win over Woodcreek to advance to the championship round of the tournament. While Woodcreek now must face Lakeside on Wednesday at 5 p.m., Folsom American awaits the winner and will play them at 5 p.m. on Thursday for the championship. MacLeod threw a complete game, allowing only one run on three hits and did so by throwing around only 70 pitches. His defense behind him was near flawless with only one error. "Reed pitched great against a really good hitting team and our defense was really good," Folsom American Manager Brandon MacLeod said. "We were making plays everywhere. I always tell the kids, defense wins championships and they proved it tonight." MacLeod was magnificent, and Woodcreek's Easton Flores was nearly as good, as he allowed one run on four hits before leaving the game in what was a classic pitcher's duel. Folsom American jumped on top in the bottom of the first inning. Caden Blake led off the inning with a double. Blake moved to third on an error on a ball hit by Hunter Vickers and then scored on a sacrifice fly by Hunter Smith. That was all either team could muster until the bottom of the fifth inning when Folsom American scored two insurance runs. MacLeod singled and Evertt Ziemann walked to put the first two batters on base. Curtis Hayes Jr. then walked to load the bases before Ethan Gong was hit by a pitch forcing MacLeod across home plate for the second run of the game. After a pair of strikeouts, Isaiah Trujillo drew a walk to score Ziemann and give Folsom American a 3-0 lead. Woodcreek finally threatened in the top of the sixth when they loaded the bases, scored a run on a wild pitch and had the tying run on second base before MacLeod got the last out on a strikeout to end the game. "This team has been grinding for a better part of a month," MacLeod said. "Before the games started we were practicing three to four times a week. We also played in the Sunrise Little League Tournament and we won that and we've kept it going until now. We've got at least one more game to go, maybe two. We're just going to keep fighting and do what we do."