East Bay Little League team wins first NorCal state championship in 20 years

For 20 years, the San Ramon Valley Little League had not raised a NorCal state championship banner.

But that all changed on Thursday when the SRV’s 10-year-old District All-Star team defeated the Chico Central All-Stars 2-0 to capture the league’s first NorCal state title since 2004. 

“It was a great win,” coach Gus Panagotacos said on Friday. “The win was a culmination of goals that we set a long time ago, and frankly, I told the kids last night that this seemed unimaginable to a lot of people but I believed it all along and I’m not surprised.” 

SRV ended its summer season 11-0 and won both the District 57 and Section 3 championships. There is not a Western regional and World Series in the 10-year-old classification.

Pitcher Camden Kangas gave up just three hits and struck out seven across 5 ⅔ innings in the victory Thursday. 

Michael Panagotacos knocked in a run and scored one in the bottom of the fourth to give SRV the two runs it needed to win the game. 

“This one was a nail biter all the way through,” SRV parent and coach Darren Brazil said. “It’s fun to watch the kids just keep their composure the whole time and just play the game of baseball.”

Thursday’s win was a culmination of the hard work. 

Gus Panagotacos has coached the players since they were in T-ball, developing each of them, even through the COVID years. 

Brazil said most of the team’s players played above their age group last season, and competed hard, but were often shut down by teams who overpowered them physically. 

One of those teams were local rivals Bollinger Canyon Little League, which beat SRV three times last season. But this season, SRV got the best of its rivals, beating Bollinger Canyon 12-3 at the beginning of this year. 

That’s when the coaches and the parents knew this team was special. 

“I think that was the first sign,” Brazil said. “We didn’t know how far that would go, but we’re like, ‘They’re a different team this year.’ They were not the same group of kids they were last year. They’ve grown a lot.”

From that point, the team rattled off win after win. 

For Gus, winning the NorCal championship also meant bringing prestige back to the SRV Little League.

A former collegiate baseball player at Cal, Gus grew up watching the success of the SRV program while playing for his dad in the Lafayette Little League as a kid.

SRV was a powerhouse Little League in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the program took a dip recently because of the expanded presence of travel ball teams and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Gus.

But changes to the league’s leadership this season has paid off as more kids gave Little League a shot. 

Gus said, “There was a really renewed effort this last year with a new president and new board members to really try to bring the league back into San Ramon Valley and bring this famous league that had a great reputation and great success through the 80s and 90s.”

Thursday’s win was especially meaningful to Gus, whose father died a few years ago. After capturing the NorCal crown, Gus teared up in his postgame speech to his team. 

He thanked each mom and dad for their support this season, and said winning the championship would not have been possible without the effort put in by the parents. 

“It’s definitely a drain on your schedule,” Gus said. “It’s exhausting, but it’s all worth it.”

Moving forward, the team will have an even bigger goal. It will aim to make it to the Little League World Series in Williamsport when the players all turn 12. 

The team already has their eyes set on one day playing on ESPN. 

“We’re not done,” Gus said. “I’m setting this lofty goal for us, and hopefully when we’re 12, we’ll get to be out there in Pennsylvania on TV celebrating with the other kids from around the world.”