Yankees win Little League crown

The Yankees showed why they are the kings of Carson City Thursday night.

The regular-season American League champs got a grandslam from Zach Berg, and Colby Blueberg and Tim Miranda combined to pitch a two-hit shutout in a 10-0 win over the Angels at Governor's Field to capture the city championship.

The contest was stopped with one out in the fourth because of the 10-run rule. The Yankees had back-to-back four-run innings in the third and fourth.

"Everything went our way," Yankee manager Jim Blueberg said. "They were a lot of fun to coach this year.

"We beat them three times this year. They're a really good team, but for whatever reason whenever they play us they don't get the breaks."

The Angels' demise could be attributed to defense and the inability to hit in the clutch. The Angels made seven errors, six in the last two innings, and they left seven runners stranded in the first three innings.

"You can't do that against a team like that," said Joe Domitrovich, manager of the Angels. "We hit the ball hard.

"We got here and eight other teams didn't do that. I call this team the never-say-die kids. They have come from behind all year long."

It didn't happen this time. Each time the Angels made a mistake in the field, the Yankees made them pay dearly. And each time the Angels looked like they would get on the scoreboard, the Yankees would come up with a good defensive play. Not a bad recipe for success.

The Angels put runners on first and second with two outs, but Cody Blueberg struck out Matt Cooper to end the inning.

The Angels threatened again in the second, loading the bases with one out on two walks and a single by Griffin Wilcher. Nicholas Domitrovich forced out Ryan Chandler at the plate for the second out, and Blueberg retired Seth Rojas on a comebacker to end the inning.

The winners took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the inning against starter Anthony Torkeo when Berg walked and scored on Mark McCraw's double off the base of the fence in left field. McCraw scored on the play when the Angels' left fielder bobbled the ball and threw wildly into the infield.

The Angels lost another opportunity to score in the third, loading the bases with one out. Miranda came on to relieve Blueberg. Ryan Chandler hit a one-hopper to Berg at first, who tagged the bag and fired a strike to shortstop Beau Bickel, who tagged out Josh Chandler at second base to end the inning.

That spelled the beginning of the end for the Angels.

Berg hit a one-out grandlsam in the third to make it 6-0, and the Yankees scored four more in the fourth on five errors and singles by Bryan Sumers and McCraw.

"Tim (Miranda) came in and did a good job of shutting them down," the elder Blueberg said.