Little League: Juneau starts off strong at West Regional

Cambrian Park Little League of California was no match for Gastineau Channel Little League on Friday at the Little League West Regional tournament.

Playing in its first game of the Junior division tournament at Ida Price Middle School in San Diego, California, the Juneau team had six hits and 11 walks to down the host team 10-3.

Thomas Baxter led the way with two hits for GCLL while striking out four batters over three innings, giving up two hits and one run. 

“Every kid on the team did their job,” Juneau coach Randy Quinto said by phone after the game. “They know their roles, they know what’s to be expected of them.”

The team advances in the winner’s bracket to play La Grande Little League of Oregon on Sunday at 9 a.m. Juneau’s side of the bracket includes teams from all over the West Coast including Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Oregon. Quinto said the longer the team can stay on the top half of the bracket, the better its prospects will be.

“The lower bracket is not a fun one,” he said. “The lower bracket has Northern California, Southern California, Hawaii, Washington all in there. Those guys are going to beat each other up and so if we can stay up top, we’ve got a good road.”

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• Contact sports reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com. Follow Empire Sports on Twitter at @akempiresports.

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