The U9 won the championship at the Cheviot Hills Tournament over Memorial Day weekend.
At a tournament over Memorial Day Weekend at Cheviot Hills, Pacific Palisades Baseball Association players showed grit and determination to win the finals, defeating La Canada, 15-5.
Under coaches Kambiz Kamdar, Karl House and Steve Berman, their 13-player roster delivered in spectacular fashion, despite having to play and practice at an alternate field this spring. The Palisades Field of Dreams was closed during The Palisades Fire, and has not been reopened almost five months later, despite nearly intact fields.
The team went 3-0 in the tournament before advancing to the finals. Three of the wins were by the mercy rule, including the Championship game.
In that game, Palisades faced La Canada, a team that they lost to last year. This year there was no stopping the players, whose bats pounded out a 15-5 final.
“The kids played amazing all weekend,” said Coach Kamdar. “Pitching was ‘lights out,’ defense was amazing, and every player hit the ball well.”
He said that Pali baserunning was aggressive. “We had some good competition even though some of the scores were lopsided,” Kamdar said, praising his team for how well they consistently played.
The team included: James Kamdar, Luca House, Spencer Bergman, Parker Atwood, Gavin Morrow, James Murphy, Henry Janneck, Decland Donahue, Ford Hill, Grey and Sam Schiff, Noah Mehring and Graham Aris.
Two other PPBA teams advanced to the finals.
The 12U team, coached by David Hoffman, Blake Tucker and Eric Foster, lost to the Wilshire Warriors 3-2 in a well-fought championship game.
The 13U team fell to Santa Monica in the finals. They were coached by Ollie Dunn and Chris Feil.