Little League: Mill Valley tops Novato South to claim title
Two years ago, the Mill Valley 11’s All-Stars battled their way through to District and Section titles, playing nine games in 10 days and advancing all the way to the NorCal playoffs where they finished fifth.
The core of that team was poised for another big run last year in 12’s but the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the season and dashed their title hopes.
Now, with most of that 2019 championship team back, Mill Valley is once again bound for the Section tournament.
Mill Valley claimed the Intermediate 50-70 District 3 title on Thursday with an 11-7 win over Novato South at Alto Field, completing a 3-0 run through District play.
Mill Valley led 8-0 before Novato South made things interesting late but timely offense and shutdown pitching out the bullpen ultimately sent Mill Valley onto the Section Tournament.
“What a neat story for the kids,” said Mill Valley head coach Brian Murphy. “We talked about the pandemic that took this away from them and now they get to have these sweet moments of baseball in town. That’s what we were striving for and that’s what Novato South was striving for as well and I think they created some of those moments, too. I thought it was a great, great game between two really good teams.”
Mill Valley starting pitcher Colt Crum Usich went 3 for 4 at the plate with a team-high three RBIs and picked up the win after hurling four solid innings on the mound. He struck out three and kept Novato South in check early before turning the ball over to Eddie Kideckel and Scott Ohlinger to close things out.
Mill Valley controlled most of the game. They led 3-0 after three thanks to a sacrifice fly from Colin Cann in the second and a two-run single from Crum Usich in the third. Mill Valley then broke things open in the fourth, scoring four runs to take a 7-0 lead. Luca Younger and Crum Usich had RBI singles while Grayson Robert delivered the big hit with a booming two-run double.
Younger then singled home another run in the fifth to extend the advantage to 8-0 but Novato South wasn’t going down without a fight, scoring five runs in the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by an inside-the-park grand slam from Luke Martin.
Enter Kideckel, who relieved Crum Usich with no outs in the fifth. While he wasn’t a member of that 11’s team, he made his impact felt with this group by tossing a perfect inning of relief with a strikeout to get Mill Valley out of the jam.
“That was a chance for some new blood to perform and I know it might have looked strange to not to go Scott right then but we have great faith in Eddie,” Murphy said. “(Scott is) a tough at-bat and we had to buy some outs because we knew we wanted Scott to come in strong at the end of the game and not be tired, so we had to buy some outs and Eddie bought us those outs.”
Mill Valley then tacked on three runs in the top of the seventh thanks to Ohlinger, Cooper Mitchell and Devin Curtis. Those were key runs as it pushed Mill Valley’s lead to 11-5 heading to the bottom of the seventh.
True to form, Novato South would not go away quietly. Martin, leading off the inning, reached base and then scored on an error a batter later as Novato South went on to load the bases with none out. They added another run with two outs but Ohlinger got a swinging strikeout to end it.
“I gotta give them some credit, they put up some great at-bats in the last inning because he is a tough customer but ultimately, Scotty prevailed,” Murphy said.
Now, Mill Valley heads off to the Section Championship. All-Star playoffs at the Intermediate level don’t extend past Sections, so Mill Valley will have a chance to end its season going out on top. Just like two years ago, they got a tough draw, facing off with the District 4 champion in a play-in game next Thursday.
But if history is any indicator, Mill Valley would have it no other way.
“Just the way we like it,” Murphy said before joining his team in celebration on the field.
Mill Valley 9s win
Davis Marshall pitched a perfect game to lead the Mill Valley 9s to an 8-0 title game victory in six innings against Novato North on Thursday.
Marshall struck out 14 batters and threw 83% of his pitches for strikes. Brodie Williams went 2 for 4 for Mill Valley while Levi Weber went 3 for 3.
Mill Valley went 3-0 in pool play before winning two playoff games to cap an undefeated run.