CBC Bronco-11 team reaches World Series semifinal

The CBC All-Stars know how fast a game can change. Friday night, it changed in their favor when they scored 11 runs in one inning.

Saturday, they gave up five funs in the sixth inning, as Torrance, Calif., ousted Chesterfield, the host team in the Bronco-11 World Series, 7-4.

“[The loss] is going to be with us for a long time, but hopefully we can just get it by us and forget about it and go on,” first baseman and right fielder Colin Jones said.

CBC took a 2-1 lead in the second inning when Justin Ford hit a single to center and then advanced to third on a throwing error by the center fielder. CBC (2-2) slowly built the lead to 4-2 after five innings.

In the sixth, Torrance catcher Konnor Smith hit a two-run homer to left to tie the game at 4. California tacked on three runs for a 7-4 lead, and CBC was unable to respond.

“I was worried when they got a runner on second and the big man comes to the plate, smacks one over the fence and I was like ‘Oh,’” Jones said.

CBC managed only three hits, as Torrance pitcher Travis Martizia pitched his second complete game in three days. He allowed two earned runs, struck out 11 and walked six.

Chesterfield didn’t make much of its chances early in the game, stranding seven runners.

“Any time you get that many on base, you need to push most of them across,” said CBC coach Jim Jones, Colin’s father. “Getting the bases loaded and then leaving them out there – that’s going to hurt you at some point.”

Eric Hubbard, CBC’s left fielder and leadoff hitter, said above all else, he’ll remember the experience of meeting teams from all over North America. After the tournament, players and coaches traded jerseys and hats with members of other teams.

“You just got to see what their life was like,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard played his first year with CBC, which went to Texas last year to play in the World Series as 10-year-olds. That team went 2-1.

“The biggest part of all this is getting to be host,” Jim Jones said. “We’re bringing people into our area and we want them to have a good time and enjoy it – remember it positively. We met a lot of good people.”

Torrance went on to lose 6-3 in the championship game to the team from Mexico.

From July 28 through 31, eight teams from eight corners of North America converged on Chesterfield County in hopes of winning a title and living a dream.

The competitors – 11-year-old baseball players – had competed for months to reach the PONY League Bronco-11 World Series hosted at Harry G. Daniel Park at Ironbridge.

Last year, Bronco-11 was created when the 11- and 12-year-old division was split in two. Chesterfield Baseball Clubs was chosen to host the league’s first World Series. Walnut Valley, Calif., defeated Mexico 6-3 to win the title. CBC, the host team, was eliminated by the eventual champions.

“Doing it for the first time, CBC did an excellent job,” tournament director Tom O’Connor said.

Only a few minor glitches needed to be fixed from last year, O’Connor said. One small change included replacing the bases midgame with new, cleaner bases, so the umpires could more accurately make calls.

One issue from last year that couldn’t be resolved was the potentially late finishes of games. Last year, most of CBC’s games began after their 8 p.m. scheduled start times. Most ended after 11 p.m. One game didn’t start until after 10 (and ended after midnight) because a previous game went 10 innings.

“One of the problems we have is that the teams that are flying must leave Sunday morning,” O’Connor said. “So we have to get the games in regardless of the circumstances.”

CBC agreed to host the Bronco-11 World Series for three years, but has the option to renew the agreement after the final year. Because CBC has to pay for each team’s meals, hotel and part of their travel costs, the bill for one World Series runs around $50,000.

CBC did not break even last year, but hopes it can this year. Its one-time expenses from last year – such as tables and chairs – lower the cost of this year’s tournament. CBC President Blake Eller hopes advertising revenue will grow and keep the World Series feasible and in Chesterfield for years to come.

“I’d like to say right now that we’ll keep it forever,” Eller said. “Hopefully, the economy is not going to stay down forever, either.”

In Thursday’s game, the CBC All-Stars weren’t about to let a second lead go to waste.

After blowing a 7-1 lead in the fifth inning, CBC, the host team of the Bronco-11 World Series, pulled out a narrow 8-7 win over the Albany Upstate Gamers Wednesday night in the opening day of the championship.

CBC starter Steven Baughan cruised through the first four innings. He struck out seven batters. He allowed four hits and five runs – three earned – and walked three. Baughan gave up a three-run double before exiting in the fifth inning.

Justin Ford, the first reliever, walked his only two batters. That forced CBC coach Jim Jones to call on his son, Colin Jones, to try to stop the bleeding. But he allowed a fielder’s choice and an RBI single to tie the game at 7.

In the bottom of the sixth, shortstop and catcher Brandon Rash reached base on a hit by pitch. He advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a wild pitch.

Jones allowed two Albany runners to get to second and third before he got the final out.

Jones pitched three innings and allowed three hits and one run, but it was unearned.

Rash finished 2 for 3, with three runs scored. J.T. Creed also went 2 for 3 and scored twice.

Friday’s game ran the entire gamut of emotions for Chesterfield – from utter heartbreak to unbridled jubilation. Channahon, Ill., (0-3) started with an 8-0 lead, but an 11-run fifth inning by the CBC All-Stars (2-1) dramatically altered the course of the contest, and CBC defeated the team from Illinois 14-8.

With the win, Chesterfield advanced to the semifinals of the Bronco-11 World Series Saturday at 3 p.m. at Harry G. Daniel Park at Ironbridge.

J.T. Creed started – and finished – CBC’s fifth-inning rally. In his first at-bat of the inning, he hit a two-run homer that made the score 8-3. After CBC batted around, he came up again in the fifth. In his second at-bat of the inning, he hit a three-run shot that made the score 11-8.

Both home runs went well over the fence and landed somewhere in the forest beyond left field.

Before that momentous fifth inning, nothing seemed to go right for CBC. Channahon, a team that hadn’t yet won a game, was getting every bounce and every play to go its way. It quickly built up an 8-0 lead as it got timely hits and CBC struggled with errors.

The game reached its lowest point for CBC when Channahon took an 8-0 lead in the third by scoring three runs on no hits and three errors.

Eric Kolenich is a staff writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.